Table 1.

Comparison of MBS activity and associated costs for specialist consultations and patient-end services provided before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

	Time period
Specialist activity	Pre-COVID-19 period Mar 2019 to Feb 2020	Post-COVID-19 period Mar 2020 to Feb 2021	P-value
	Average number of MBS specialist consultations provided per month, N (%)
Total consultations	2,236,900 (100.0)	2,268,073 (100.0)	0.717
In-person consultations	2,222,025 (99.3)	1,846,794 (81.2)	0.001
Telehealth consultations	14,875 (0.7)	421,279 (18.8)	<0.0001
Pre-COVID-19 videoconference	14,875 (0.7)	30,810 (1.4)
COVID-19 videoconference	Not applicable	63,536 (2.8)
COVID-19 telephone	Not applicable	326,933 (14.6)
Patient-end services	5924 (0.3)	6497 (0.3)	0.061
	Average costs to the MBS for specialist consultations provided per month, AU$ (%)
Total consultations	176,028,067 (100.0)	180,455,237 (100.0)	0.589
In-person consultations	172,521,216 (98.0)	144,533,797 (79.8)	0.004
Telehealth consultations	3,052,661 (1.7)	35,427,581 (19.9)	<0.0001
Pre-COVID-19 videoconference	3,052,661 (1.7)	5,987,359 (3.4)
COVID-19 videoconference	Not applicable	5,715,683 (3.2)
COVID-19 telephone	Not applicable	23,724,538 (13.4)
Patient-end services	454,190 (0.3)	493,859 (0.3)	0.096

MBS: Medicare Benefits Schedule; COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019.