HealthCert Insights – A Podcast for Doctors, Nurses and Healthcare Professionals

Choosing the correct Medicare item number for a consultation is not always straightforward, particularly when appointment lengths vary or a patient needs an additional skin check.

In this second episode of Medicare Explained, skin cancer doctor A/Prof Tony Dicker and practice operations expert Matt Woollard explore the Medicare item numbers commonly used for GP consultations, including in skin cancer medicine. They break down the criteria for standard consultations (item 23), longer consultations (item 36), and short consultations (item 3).

The discussion examines what distinguishes these item numbers, why time spent with the patient matters, and how practice appointment schedules can support appropriate billing. They also discuss consultation documentation, tracking appointment times, and the potential compliance concerns associated with claiming longer consultation items.

For GPs working in general practice and skin cancer medicine, understanding these distinctions can help clarify how consultation item numbers apply to everyday clinical scenarios.

Listen to the episode below for a closer look at the criteria and considerations behind Medicare consultation billing.

Prefer a visual format? Watch this podcast here.

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This HealthCert Education podcast series takes GPs through the essentials of Medicare billing, building from Medicare fundamentals and consultation billing to investigations, procedures, and more complex clinical scenarios — with an initial focus on skin cancer medicine but later expanding into other areas of primary care. The series also explores billing tools and resources, compliance, and medico-legal considerations, with real case examples to help translate the principles into day-to-day clinical practice.

Most aesthetic clinicians are confident recommending treatments. Recommending what patients use at home is often a different story. Many worry about seeming “salesy,” feel uneasy asking patients to spend more, or simply leave retail to someone else.

In this episode of The Aesthetic Shift, NP Kelly Beasy talks with Iola Ciavarra, director of aesthetics wholesaler Reveal and a 30-year industry veteran. Iola makes the case that recommending skincare is part of your duty of care. Your patients are already buying products, she points out. They’re just not buying them from you, and they’re often following influencer advice.

The conversation covers:

why a sale is really just a prescription with a transaction attached

when to raise home care during a consultation

the core products every clinic can start with

common mistakes in choosing and displaying stock

what a small retail range can do for your cash flow

Iola’s advice is practical and easy to apply, whether you run a skin-focused clinic or an injectables-only practice.

This is part one of a two-part mini-series with Iola. Look out for part two soon.

Prefer a visual format? Watch this podcast here.

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Medicare can feel complicated, particularly when you start navigating item descriptors, scheduled fees, benefit rates, and the rules around claiming. But understanding the fundamentals makes it much easier to see how the different pieces fit together.

Welcome to this first episode of Medicare Explained — a new HealthCert Education podcast series for GPs. In the first episode, skin cancer doctor A/Prof Tony Dicker and practice operations expert Matt Woollard go back to basics, looking at what Medicare actually is, how it operates as a government-funded insurance system, and the distinction between a scheduled fee, a Medicare benefit, and the fee charged by a practitioner.

They also unpack the role of MBS item descriptors and why providing a service is not, by itself, enough to claim a Medicare benefit. The service must meet the requirements of the relevant descriptor, with clinical notes providing an important record of what was done.

The discussion also explores explanatory notes, benefit rates, and the distinction between patient-initiated consultations and health screening services, including how this applies to skin cancer assessment in primary care.

This episode sets the groundwork for the rest of the series, which will progressively explore consultations, investigation items, procedures, billing, and the medico-legal considerations GPs need to understand when working within the Medicare system.

Prefer a visual format? Watch this podcast here.

Links discussed in this episode

MBS Online: https://www.mbsonline.gov.au/

Understanding Medicare Provider Handbook: https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-09/understanding-medicare-provider-handbook.pdf  

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This HealthCert Education podcast series takes GPs through the essentials of Medicare billing, building from Medicare fundamentals and consultation billing to investigations, procedures, and more complex clinical scenarios — with an initial focus on skin cancer medicine but later expanding into other areas of primary care. The series also explores billing tools and resources, compliance, and medico-legal considerations, with real case examples to help translate the principles into day-to-day clinical practice.

Medicare Explained – a HealthCert Education podcast series with skin cancer doctor A/Prof Tony Dicker and practice operations expert Matt Woollard.

This podcast series takes GPs through the essentials of Medicare billing, building from Medicare fundamentals and consultation billing to investigations, procedures, and more complex clinical scenarios — with an initial focus on skin cancer medicine but later expanding into other areas of primary care. The series also explores billing tools and resources, compliance, and medico-legal considerations, with real case examples to help translate the principles into day-to-day clinical practice.

Learn more at https://www.healthcert.com/blog/tag/medicare-explained

Perimenopause can present with a wide range of symptoms, making it easy for the consultation to become an unprioritised list of concerns. For women over 45 with typical symptoms and changing menstrual patterns, however, diagnosis is usually clinical, rather than dependent on hormone testing.

In this HealthCert podcast, Dr Simone Gonzo explores a structured approach to assessment and management, including how to recognise perimenopause while avoiding diagnostic overshadowing.

A key consideration is abnormal bleeding. While cycle changes are common during perimenopause, heavy, intermenstrual, postcoital, or postmenopausal bleeding should not simply be attributed to hormonal changes. Dr Gonzo discusses how to assess bleeding, identify relevant risk factors, and determine when further investigation or specialist assessment is warranted.

The episode also covers symptom-focused management, including menopausal hormone therapy, non-hormonal options, genitourinary symptoms, contraception, and the role of the 52 mg LNG-IUD.

Watch the full video podcast here.

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Case Management: Perimenopause

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Women may live with pain, heavy or difficult periods, postnatal symptoms, hormonal changes, or other concerns for years because they have come to see them as simply part of being a woman.

But while a symptom may be common, that does not necessarily mean it should be accepted without further assessment.

In this episode of Focused Practice Conversations, practice operations expert Matt Woollard speaks with Dr Sneha Wadhwani, GP and National Clinical Director of Evoca Women’s Health, about the women’s health presentations that can sometimes be minimised or overlooked in general practice.

The conversation explores how GPs can recognise when a seemingly routine concern warrants a deeper look, the questions that may uncover important information, and how continuity of care can help connect symptoms that might otherwise appear unrelated.

Dr Wadhwani also discusses where knowledge and confidence gaps can affect women’s health consultations, and simple ways GPs can approach these conversations more confidently.

Looking to expand your women’s health expertise? Evoca's Annual Women’s Health Conference brings together leading experts for a full day covering menopause, pelvic pain, fertility, breast health, pelvic floor disorders, and more, with a strong focus on primary care.

📍 Saturday 17 October, Sydney

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Focused Practice Conversations series

HealthCert Education's Focused Practice Conversations podcast series explores how GPs build focused areas of practice, why they chose that path, what changed in their clinic, and whether going deeper into one niche was ultimately worth it. Hosted by Matt Woollard.

Brain fog, cognitive changes and mental wellbeing are increasingly part of conversations around perimenopause and other hormonal transitions. But what do these experiences actually mean, and how can clinicians recognise and respond to them?

In this episode of Focused Practice Conversations, practice operations expert Matt Woollard speaks with A/Prof Caroline Gurvich, a clinical neuropsychologist and Deputy Director of the HER Centre Australia at Monash University, about the evolving understanding of women’s mental health and cognition.

They discuss Caroline’s journey into this area of expertise, why brain fog and perimenopause have attracted greater attention, and what clinicians are learning about the lived experience of hormonal transitions.

The conversation also explores some of the misconceptions surrounding cognitive symptoms, how these experiences can affect quality of life, and the developments in research that are shaping the field.

For GPs and other healthcare professionals, it offers an opportunity to consider what may be overlooked in consultations and how our understanding of women’s health continues to change.

Prefer a visual format? Watch this episode on the HealthCert Education YouTube channel.

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Focused Practice Conversations series

HealthCert Education's Focused Practice Conversations podcast series explores how GPs build focused areas of practice, why they chose that path, what changed in their clinic, and whether going deeper into one niche was ultimately worth it. Hosted by Matt Woollard.

A new mRNA vaccine for advanced melanoma is generating significant interest, but what does it actually mean for patients?

In the latest episode of Life by a Thousand Cuts, A/Prof Tony Dicker examines the recent trial of Moderna’s personalised mRNA vaccine, intismeran, in combination with pembrolizumab. He explains how the treatment is designed around the individual mutations in a patient’s melanoma, the early evidence for improved recurrence-free survival, and some of the practical challenges involved in producing a personalised vaccine.

For GPs, the key distinction is that this is not a vaccine to prevent melanoma. Rather, it is an emerging treatment approach for patients who already have advanced melanoma, and one that patients may increasingly ask about as more results receive media attention.

Prefer a visual format? Watch this podcast here.

Next steps in your learning journey

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This podcast series is designed to help you enhance your clinical decision-making, procedural skills, and confidence in skin cancer management. Focus on real-world cases, surgical techniques and tips, journal article reviews, diagnostic and management insights, and guest interviews with GPs and specialists.

Heavy menstrual bleeding is a common presentation in general practice and can have a significant impact on quality of life — and patients are often looking for clear, practical advice.

GPs are often helping patients navigate a range of management options and supporting them to make informed decisions that align with their preferences and goals. This podcast episode with Dr Simone Gonzo focuses on one aspect of that conversation: how to discuss intrauterine systems with patients, address common questions and misconceptions, and support shared decision-making in everyday practice.

Delivered in collaboration with Bayer Australia^, in this podcast, Dr Simone Gonzo shares insights into how to talk to your patients about intrauterine systems, including practical counselling tips for general practice.

Watch the full video podcast here.

^ This activity has been developed independently by HealthCert Education with the support of an unconditional educational grant from Bayer Australia. Bayer has had no editorial input into the content.

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Heavy menstrual bleeding affects approximately one in four women of reproductive age, yet many patients remain undiagnosed, undertreated, or unaware that effective treatment options exist.

In this free webinar, Dr Simone Gonzo explores the assessment and management of heavy menstrual bleeding in general practice.

Drawing on the Australian Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Clinical Care Standard, this session provides a structured approach to history-taking, investigation, medical management, and shared decision-making, including when to consider referral for intrauterine system insertion.

Designed for busy GPs, the webinar provides practical strategies you can apply immediately in the consultation room to support women experiencing heavy menstrual bleeding.

Delivered in collaboration with Bayer Australia^, this session will teach you how to:

The webinar includes Q&A and case discussions.

^ This activity has been developed independently by HealthCert Education with the support of an unconditional educational grant from Bayer Australia. Bayer has had no editorial input into the content.

Watch the webinar here. 

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As a thank-you for completing the evaluation, you'll receive complimentary enrolment in a women's health short course of your choice, valued up to $295.

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