New telehealth rules starting today will restrict nurse practitioners' (NP) ability to deliver high-quality healthcare – a loss to Australians, particularly in remote and regional areas.
Patients of independent nurse practitioners will now be required to have had at least one face-to-face appointment within the prior 12 months to be able to claim a Medicare rebate for a telehealth appointment.
"In a health system desperately short of clinicians, independent nurse practitioners are a hugely valuable asset that we should be encouraging and supporting," said Australian College of Nursing Chief Nursing Officer, Frances Rice.
"We need to be using each and every health professional's skills and expertise to their full extent.
"Yet at every turn, nurse practitioners have to fight tooth and nail to be able to deliver care within a system that is often hostile to them.
"The telehealth rules are just the latest example of this."
While general practitioners are exempt from the new 'one-in-twelve' rule if they are registered with the MyMedicare system, independent nurse practitioners are excluded from registering with MyMedicare.
"Nurse practitioners must be allowed to register with MyMedicare to enable them to deliver the high-quality, advanced care they are trained for and expert in," said Ms Rice.
Nurse practitioners are the only regulated advanced nursing practice role in Australia. They work autonomously as generalist or specialist practitioners, with the authority to diagnose, prescribe medications and treat complex conditions.
"Nurse practitioners have been a regulated role in Australia since 2000 – yet they are hindered by a lack of support from the system," says Ms Rice.
While the nurse practitioner workforce in Australia has expanded significantly between 2019 and 2024, with registrations increasing by 52.8% (from 1,876 to 2,867), this expansion is not matched by proportional utilisation:
- Non-employment among NPs doubled from 51 to 103 — a 102% increase,
- NPs not in the labour force rose by 72.4%, from 58 to 100,
- Between 2020 and 2024, those employed specifically as NPs grew by 31.9%, but those not employed as NPs surged by 71.6%.
These figures reveal a widening gap between workforce capacity and actual deployment, pointing to systemic barriers that limit the full integration of NPs into the health system
To close the utilisation gap and fully realise the value of the NP workforce, Australia must:
- Expand NP roles across primary care, aged care, and rural health,
- Reform funding and regulatory frameworks to support full scope of practice,
- Align workforce planning with service delivery needs,
- Invest in retention and career development, ensuring NPs are supported, valued, and empowered to lead care.
"While ever we hobble the nurse practitioner workforce from using all of their skills and expertise, Australians are missing out," said Ms Rice.
"The health system can't afford this inefficiency and we must do better."
