Referral vs. Request

Medicare has advised some changes to request forms/referrals

• Diagnostic imaging requests will no longer be referred to as a referral but rather a request form.
• Diagnostic imaging requests for imaging no longer have an expiry date.
• A request must include the date of referral, the name of the referrer as well as their address and/or their Provider number
• The request does not need to be signed.

In summary – we will no longer refer to the forms as referrals but rather as request forms and that these don’t have an expiry date and don’t need to be signed, just dated and have the Drs name, practice address/provider number.

We will still keep an eye out though on referral dates as our Drs are required to determine whether a test is medically necessary and someone who brings in a request that’s two years old may not necessarily need that particular test any longer or a more appropriate scan may be  required.  Therefore any request older than 12 months will be looked at on an individual basis to assess if still appropriate to proceed.