Telehealth Growth Prompts Calls for Updated Indemnity Cover for GPs
27 Nov 2025
Telehealth use has expanded significantly in recent years, with GPs increasingly managing chronic conditions, conducting rural consultations and responding to asynchronous requests from established patients through phone, video and secure online platforms. This shift has raised questions about whether traditional indemnity policies adequately protect clinicians working across multiple consultation types.
Medical Board Guidelines Under the Spotlight
The Medical Board of Australia’s telehealth guidelines set out core expectations for safe virtual care, including confirming patient identity, ensuring privacy, documenting the type of technology used and explaining the limitations of telehealth.
The Board also maintains that telehealth should not routinely replace in-person consultations and has taken a firm position on prescribing. It does not support issuing prescriptions or providing healthcare when a practitioner has never had a real-time consultation — whether in person, via video or by telephone. Asynchronous requests for medication from patients with whom the practitioner has had no real-time interaction are explicitly discouraged.
MIPS Highlights the Need for Cover That Matches Real Practice
The Medical Indemnity Protection Society (MIPS) says indemnity policies must keep pace with how GPs now work, particularly as asynchronous and hybrid consultation models become more common.
MIPS provides cover for asynchronous care when a pre-existing clinical relationship exists and when practitioners can follow up patients in real time, or when such cover is agreed to in writing.
The organisation says comprehensive indemnity must reflect the diverse ways care is delivered, from video consultations to telephone follow-ups and secure digital messaging platforms.
Geographic Coverage Remains a Key Consideration
MIPS’ telehealth protection applies when both clinician and patient are in Australia, when practitioners are overseas temporarily while treating patients in Australia, or when patients are overseas for short periods while receiving care from Australia.
Cover does not extend to situations in which either party is in the United States or under US jurisdiction.
Practitioners providing telehealth from overseas must retain AHPRA registration and comply with any local regulatory requirements.
Ensuring Certainty in a Changing Practice Landscape
With telehealth now embedded in everyday care, indemnity providers say GPs should ensure their cover aligns with contemporary practice. MIPS offers up to $20 million in indemnity cover, 24/7 medico-legal advice and access to accredited education programs.
The organisation is encouraging clinicians to review their current policy to confirm it supports all forms of telehealth they offer.
For more information or to obtain a quote, GPs can visit the MIPS website.
