Bill: In Australia, we have a public health system called Medicare. In the public hospital system, there are clinics that will cover podiatry. However, there’s usually a mini-week waiting period to get into those clinics. You can also then seek treatment in a private practice.
In a private practice there is a chronic disease management program or CDM program that general practitioners or medical doctors can refer to. Which will entitle you to five sessions of treatment within a calendar year. If you require more than that, then there is also private health care cover and you’ll be covered in the clinic for that.
If that’s an issue for you, I would suggest you ring your local Cheltenham podiatrist and ask exactly what they do cover and how that works for you.
Steve: And to complicate it a little bit further, CDM or Chronic Disease Management Program used to be called the Extended Primary Care program. So, if you’ve heard of EPC, that’s the same that Bill’s talking about — the CDM. That’s interchangeable. It’s not a separate or another program. We still get asked about that.
Bill: So get on the phone and see what applies to you.
