12 September 2016 | Australian GPs, Clinic Owners and Practice Managers | 3 minutes read
MBS review Report – GPs scrutinised once again
Once again GPs and MBS billing are being scrutinised by the federal government. On 6 September 2016 Health Minister Sussan Ley released the MBS review Interim report and GPs are once again the hot topic. The MBS has not been reviewed for 30 years, so a review was well overdue. But what is this interim report actually saying?
In recent years the use of MBS items has grown at a substantial rate, higher than the population growth which makes the government believe that MBS items are being billed when they are unnecessary and doctors are not providing high value services. The Review Taskforce can choose to change, erase or create new MBS items.
The MBS item cost blow out is one of the reasons we have the current Medicare freeze, we can only hope that the government will see the sense to end this freeze now. The report indicates that GP consultations were one of the main cost drivers in health. We disagree – GPs are the basis of our Medical system and are a crucial element to health care for Australians.
While there are some valid points within this report we do believe that the conversation needs to be more open and should be focused on assisting General Practice as the backbone of the Australian medical system rather than cutting GPs out of their patient’s healthcare treatment.
To access the Interim report, please visit: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/26CEC8388EE86854CA2580210016EF82/$File/MBS-Review-Interim-report-Final-%204%20Oct.pdf
Want to be involved? Visit: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/MBSR-committees Email MBSReviews@health.gov.au or signup to the MBS review newsletter
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