How Dispensed and Subscription-Based Telehealth Are Changing Access to Specialist Care in Australia

Australians managing chronic health conditions face a persistent financial barrier that traditional healthcare systems struggle to address. Standard telehealth consultations across Australia cost between $49 and $130 per appointment, with many services requiring payment upfront. For patients requiring regular specialist follow-ups, these fees accumulate into what researchers describe as trade-offs between health management and meeting basic living needs.

The mathematics tells a clear story. A patient who sees a specialist every month pays between $588 and $1,560 annually in consultation fees, before factoring in medication costs, which can reach $42.50 per prescription for general patients. Australia spends more than $38 billion per year on care for people with chronic health conditions, yet the system remains built around “patient activity” rather than continuous management.

Subscription-based telehealth platforms have emerged as one response to this structural problem. These services operate on a fundamentally different economic model, eliminating per-consultation charges in favor of predictable monthly costs that include both clinical support and medication. Dispensed, an Australian telehealth clinic, structures its offering around this approach with no setup fees or ongoing consultation charges.

How Subscription Models Address Chronic Care Economics

The subscription framework addresses a core challenge in chronic disease management identified by health economists. Traditional fee-for-service models create financial friction precisely when patients need regular touchpoints with healthcare providers. People with diabetes, respiratory conditions, or chronic pain conditions require consistent monitoring and treatment adjustments across months or years. When each consultation triggers a new payment, patients frequently delay necessary appointments or skip follow-ups entirely.

Research on Australian healthcare access indicates that approximately 50% of the population has at least one chronic condition. These individuals account for 61% of total disease burden yet face particular vulnerability to out-of-pocket costs. The subscription model attempts to remove this barrier by converting sporadic, unpredictable expenses into a single recurring payment that covers comprehensive care.

Eliminating Financial Friction in Ongoing Care

The distinction between subscription and traditional models becomes clearer when examining patient behavior. Healthcare on Collins, a Melbourne medical practice, charges between $112 and $130 for standard consultations lasting up to 20 minutes, with Medicare rebates of $43.90, leaving patients with out-of-pocket costs of $68.10 to $86.10. Patients who require monthly check-ins face annual gaps of $817 to $1,033 after Medicare rebates. Those needing longer consultations of 40 minutes pay $204 to $235 per visit.

Dispensed operates on a contrasting structure: the initial consultation is free, and subsequent appointments are part of a monthly subscription that includes medication delivery. The platform handles prescription renewals and doctor appointments without additional service charges. Patients can cancel at any time without penalty, addressing what researchers identify as “lock-in” concerns that prevent people from trying new care models.

This approach particularly benefits patients who previously rationed their healthcare access due to cost. A 2025 systematic review of Australian chronic disease patients found that reduced or lost employment due to ill-health aggravated the financial burden of health management, with many reporting that upfront and copayments for consultations created barriers to care. When consultation fees disappear, patients can schedule appointments based on clinical need rather than financial capacity.

The subscription model also changes the economics of follow-up care. Traditional practices often struggle to bill adequately for the time spent on medication reviews, patient education, and care coordination. These activities consume clinical resources but don’t fit neatly into the fee-for-service framework that reimburses discrete consultations. A subscription structure allows clinics to provide these services without needing to justify each touchpoint through a separate billable event.

Integrated Support Beyond Scheduled Appointments

Dispensed includes seven-day live chat support as part of its service model, enabling patients to ask questions and receive guidance between formal appointments. Traditional telehealth services typically charge for each interaction, creating situations where patients hesitate to contact their provider about medication side effects or treatment adjustments that don’t seem urgent enough to justify another $69 to $130 consultation fee.

The subscription approach also changes medication management dynamics. Australian consumers with chronic conditions describe considerable costs from medicine use, compounded by the need for multiple prescriptions over extended periods. Dispensed integrates medication costs into its monthly pricing and handles prescription logistics, reducing both the financial and administrative burden patients face when managing refills across multiple medications.

Structural Implications for Chronic Disease Management

The shift toward subscription models reflects broader tensions in Australia’s healthcare financing. Medicare was designed around episodic acute care, yet chronic conditions now account for 37% of all hospitalizations and 87% of deaths. The Australian Medical Association has noted that the lack of investment in chronic disease prevention has led to a healthcare system that responds to poor health outcomes rather than actively preventing them.

Subscription telehealth platforms address this misalignment by making ongoing management economically viable for both providers and patients. Traditional general practice struggles with chronic disease management partly because Medicare rebates do not adequately compensate for the time required for comprehensive care planning. A GP management plan consultation attracts higher rebates but requires extensive documentation and coordination, exceeding the billable time. Research shows these plans often lack regular review, and patients report that follow-ups either don’t occur or occur infrequently.

Dispensed’s operational model sidesteps this problem by building review consultations into the monthly cost structure. The platform provides ongoing assessments included in the subscription price, and clinicians can adjust treatment plans without generating new fees. This removes administrative complexity for patients while creating predictable revenue streams that support continuous care delivery.

Questions remain about the scalability and long-term sustainability of subscription models. The approach works well for conditions that require consistent medication and regular monitoring, but may be less suitable for patients with highly variable care needs or those requiring frequent specialist referrals outside the platform. The model also depends on patients maintaining enrollment long enough to justify the upfront investment in care planning and system setup.

Healthcare economists studying chronic disease management programs have found that sustained participation over multiple years yields increasing returns, as evidenced by reduced hospitalizations and better health outcomes. Subscription platforms that can maintain patient engagement may deliver similar benefits, though rigorous evaluation remains necessary to confirm whether the financial model translates into measurable clinical improvements.

The emergence of subscription telehealth represents one attempt to reconcile Australia’s acute-care payment infrastructure with the realities of chronic disease management. Whether this approach proves broadly viable depends on its ability to deliver quality care while remaining financially sustainable for providers and affordable for the patients who need it most.