Dr Damien Ford consults at bulkbill.doctor, and co-founder Matt Ford looks after the systems behind it. It’s a fully virtual Australian GP practice.
When bulkbill.doctor opened in September, its founders made a deliberate call to have no front desk. There is no receptionist to send registration forms, follow up the patients who haven’t completed them or file what comes back.
That work still has to happen before every appointment. The question was who, or what, would do it.
The practice has no admin team by design, but the paperwork doesn’t change. Patients still need to complete their forms before each consult, and bulk billing adds a signed Medicare Assignment of Benefit (AoB). Sending them out is the easy part. Following up the ones still outstanding in the hours before an appointment is what takes the time.
That sending, chasing and filing needed to happen automatically. Matt wants doctors focused on clinical work, with none of the admin landing on their plates.
The practice already used Coviu for its telehealth consults, and Coflow offered a workflow system that integrates with MediRecords. What stood out to Matt was the follow-up. Without Coflow, Matt says chasing forms by email would have taken at least 10 to 15 minutes per appointment. Even the automated setup they built before launch had no follow-up, which he says would have meant around five minutes per appointment on average, chasing patients and checking who had sent their forms back. Automatic reminders chase anything incomplete, so no one has to. These are also tracked in the task board, grouped by at-risk and overdue, which makes anything that needs further attention easy to spot.
The difference showed from the first use. When an appointment is booked in MediRecords, the patient gets one text with one link to everything they need, and completes it on their phone. There’s no app or login required, and practices can choose how long each form stays valid, so returning patients aren’t asked again for details they’ve already given. If a required form is still incomplete as the consult gets closer, a reminder goes out at times the practice has set, in its own words. Matt says that 95% of patients complete their forms before their consultation, including AoB.
The founders didn’t want anything that relied on manual work. “We wanted a set-and-forget system,” Matt says. That’s why auto-accept mattered. Completed forms go straight into MediRecords, ready for the GP to review before the consult. When Damien opens a patient’s file, everything is already there, so appointment time isn’t spent collecting details.
What Matt values most is knowing nothing gets missed. “Once a patient submits, it’s filed in MediRecords and marked off automatically. I’m confident in the whole flow,” he says.
It automates the admin really well, without creating any burden for the doctor.
Matt Ford
Co-Founder
Matt built the practice’s forms himself, with the Coviu team alongside him through setup. All appointment types now have automated workflows, so patients are ready for their consults and the doctor has everything prepared ahead of time. The system does the heavy lifting, so none of it shows up as extra work for the practice. “This thing solves a very specific problem, and as complex as it is behind the scenes, it doesn’t appear complex. It’s not complex to use,” Matt says.
Damien has been the sole clinician since launch, and the practice is built to grow as more GPs join. Matt wanted reliable systems in place before the patient numbers arrive, not after.
The AoB now goes out ahead of every bulk billed appointment so it’s signed before the consult. “I’d rather be in front of that rather than behind it,” Matt says.
Each new clinician brings more bookings, and the paperwork that comes with them. When forms run on their own, a practice can take on more without taking on more admin.
Dr Damien Ford
GP
About bulkbill.doctor
A fully virtual Australian GP practice. Anyone can book. Medicare bulk billed if eligible.
Less chasing. More care.
See how forms are sent, chased and filed into your practice management software for you. Easier for your team, and for your patients.