https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/23577121/ji ... o-payment/Jillian Skinner says NSW considering inviting GPs to treat patients in hospital to avoid $7 co-payment
I don't like this aspect of the budget either, but I can't see that working...
Most GPs on the medical forums are not keen on the co-payment idea.
GPs groups have been advised that there will be no increase in the Medicare Rebate as the $7.00 co-payment effectively gives them a $2.00 per standard consultation fee rise for this coming year - while Medicare saves $5.00 by reducing the Medicare Rebate.
Several groups have already reported they explored whether they could waive the $7.00 co-payment for the less well off, and have been advised that they can,
but if if they do that they will also have to waive the standard incentive component for software compliance too , which means they will take a 25% cut in the present bulk-billing rebate if they do it. (And the present rebate is not much over half the AMA recommended full fee.)
So I can imagine them lining up to go to public hospitals, just to face the same dilemma there instead of in their surgeries, after putting in the travelling time as well. (NOT)
That said, there are some people who come to the doctor unnecessarily often, and some GPs have in the past mooted charging a token fee** to control this, but were not allowed to do so unless they billed the patient totally and let the patient deal with Medicare, which some GPs in wealthier areas do adopt as policy.
Traditionally the states were fully responsible for funding public health services and public education. They've gotten used to getting extra grants for specific projects, and lately have become more reliant on them while the federal government was being rather generous and ignoring the ongoing deficits. So, they didn't budget for the possibility it may not go on forever. (A bit like basing your household budget on a lot of overtime continuing to come your way.)
** In my early days in private practice I found I was getting 10 requests a day for prescriptions to be posted to people who had forgotten to ask for them when they saw me or their GP. That was eating about 40 minutes a day by the time you looked up the file to check the request was correct, wrote the prescription, and recorded having done so. Introducing a token fee for prescriptions
not obtained at consultation dried that up fast.
(It was legal because Medicare pays nothing towards writing such prescriptions.)
Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 4:43 pm
