The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has dropped his controversial $ 7 GP co-payment – but is replacing it with a $ 5 per pay a visit to reduce to the Medicare rebate paid to doctors for some consultations. It will be left up to doctors to make a decision no matter whether they will charge their sufferers and additional $ 5 in order to recoup that funds.
At the moment, the Medicare rebate for a basic consultation that lasts significantly less than 20 minutes is $ 37.05. Physicians currently have the choice to bulk bill, in which case the patient pays absolutely nothing and the medical professional receives the $ 37.05 from Medicare. Alternatively, medical doctors can charge patients a charge and patients can claim $ 37.05 of that fee back from Medicare. The federal government’s Medicare rebate reduction implies that medical doctors will now acquire $ 32.05 from Medicare, giving them the option to accept this lesser payment or to boost the amount they charge their individuals.
Under Tony Abbott’s new scheme, doctors will nonetheless acquire the higher price of Medicare rebate for some sufferers and services, becoming:
- pensioners,
- Commonwealth concession card holders,
- all children under the age of 16,
- veterans funded by means of the Division of Veterans’ Affairs,
- attendances at residential aged care facilities
- pathology and diagnostic imaging services
For all remaining patients, the Medicare rebate for basic consultations will be decreased by $ 5 per visit from 1 July 2015.
The reduction has been cautiously welcomed by the Australia Medical Association as being greater than the previous $ 7 co-payment initiative – but nonetheless disappointing general.
“We are pleased that concession card holders, kids below 16, and residents of aged care facilities will not be subject to reduced Medicare rebates for general practitioner services. And we are happy that there will be no adjustments to Medicare rebates and bulk billing incentives for pathology and diagnostic imaging,” stated AMA President, A/Prof Brian Owler.
““However, we stay disappointed that rebates for GP services for everybody else will be reduce by $ 5. This comes on leading of a freeze on Medicare patient rebates until July 2018. This implies that, by 2018, Medicare rebates for many services will have been frozen for nearly 6 years, even though inflation continues to rise. At a time when common practice is in need to have of substantial new investment to cope with an ageing population and far more people with chronic illness, today’s announcement represents a disinvestment in good quality common practice.”
The Prime Minister has also waged war on what he termed “6 minute medicine.” Presently all general consultations that are less than 20 minutes get the exact same level of Medicare rebate ($ 37.05). There is a smaller rebate amount, getting $ 16.95 for consultations that are defined as “attendance for an apparent difficulty characterised by the straightforward nature of the task… restricted examination and management.” From 1 July 2015, all consultations that are much less than 10 minutes in length will attract the $ 16.95 rebate amount, thereby encouraging doctors to devote longer with their individuals.
That can surely be only a good point.
The $5 cut in the Medicare rebate…
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