From July 20 patients will only be able to access subsidised telehealth services through Medicare if they are a regular patient of a GP or medical practice, or have been an active patient within the past year.

The changes come in response to growing warnings from the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners around the emergence of corporate telehealth pop-ups - often linked to pharmacies - offering low value health services to patients without knowing their medical history.

Last month Summerdale Medical Centre in Launceston, Tasmania, announced it was boycotting Chemist Warehouse over claims the franchise had been marketing external corporate telehealth services to its patients, by distributing flyers with prescriptions made by Launceston GPs.

Practice partner Dr Don Rose said he was pleased the federal government had intervened with stronger restrictions on services, but questioned whether the latest reforms would be effective.

"Something had to be done, but I suppose now the question is - is this going to work?" he said.

"When the pandemic started, the goal was to try and not make people leave their home unless it was essential.

"That's why telehealth was so important and so useful.

"But when it was misused by the corporate services and they were marketing themselves as being able to provide the same services as a local GP and they couldn't ... that's what got everyone upset."

Additional government-subsidised Medicare Benefits Schedule items expanding patient access to telehealth and telephone services were introduced in March in response to COVID-19. Existing arrangements are due to expire in September.

But in a move that "undermined the work" of community GPs, Dr Rose said corporate telehealth services had been directing patients to hospital emergency departments if they required face-to-face care.

Now, under stage seven of the telehealth reforms, GPs will be required to have an existing and continuous relationship with a patient in order to provide telehealth services - including a history of face-to-face service within the past 12 months.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the changes would "ensure patients continue to receive quality, ongoing care from a GP who knows their medical history and needs".

However, Dr Rose said there would be some patients - particularly those in rural areas - who would have been unable to visit their GP within the past year.

"When they [government] set this up, they thought the pandemic would be under control by September," he said.

"It's a bit like JobKeeper ... they thought by September it [COVID-19] would all be done and dusted. But we are seeing clearly now, particularly in Victoria, it's not going to be.

"There's a cohort of patients who won't have been in to see us within the last 12 months. Because the last four or five months, we haven't been seeing many people [face to face] at all.

"So they will have to be seen face-to-face just to get around the rule, rather than it actually be essential for the care they need."

Mr Hunt said he was engaged with the medical community in "planning a long-term future for telehealth".