General News
24 July, 2022
Bulk billing doctors on decline, and Cairns included
ANOTHER Cairns GP practice has decided it can no longer offer bulk billing to most of its patients.
Smithfield Central Doctors is changing over to ‘mixed billing’ as from August 1, meaning most patients will have to start paying a gap of around $40 for a standard GP consultation. Patients on a Pensioner Concession Card, DVA or those aged 16 or younger will still be bulk billed.
Fees for the standard and other consultations are being introduced, including $80 for a standard fee. The Medicare rebate from that fee is just $39.75.
While the practice was able to maintain bulk billing for all patients throughout the pandemic, Partnered Health Medical Centres – which runs the practice – said it was “unfortunately unable to continue for the viability of the practice.”
“Transitioning to a mixed billing offering will help to address the GP shortage in the region and attract more GPs to support the health and wellbeing of the Cairns community,” said Partnered Health Medical Centres Chief Executive Officer Michael Broadbent.
“This, in addition to the significant increase in patients with complex healthcare needs, has seen not only our practice move to this model, but a shift for many medical centres nationwide that are dealing with similar challenges.”
Doctors and their professional associations have long argued the Medicare rebate is far too low, has fallen far short of keeping up with inflation, and makes bulk billing and GP practices generally unviable.
Dr Michael Clements, Rural Chair of the Royal Australian College of GPs said he is not at all surprised that yet another practice is having to change its bulk billing policies.
“I think over the last few years we’ve seen a trickle of practices having to stop their bulk billing policy and in the last few months, it’s suddenly turned into a flood,” Dr Clements said.
He said the $39 rebate was “maybe the right price 15 years ago” but is totally inadequate now.
“If the Medicare rebate had just kept up with inflation since it was invented, it’d be close to $86. When people ask to be bulk billed, they’re essentially asking their GP to accept half of what the price should be.”
The last rebate increase was on July 1 – a meagre 65 cents per standard consultation, which some doctors have called “insulting.” The increase of 1.6 per cent was well below the inflation rate of 5.1 per cent.
Mr Broadbent said the change from bulk billing to mixed billing at the Smithfield practice is also due to the Medicare rebate being too low.
“Medicare has not kept up with the cost of providing quality healthcare, particularly as we’ve seen patients present with increasingly complex conditions which require longer consult times with GPs,” he said.
The RACGP’s Dr Clements said another very concerning aspect of keeping the lid on Medicare rebates, is that patients are inclined to neglect their health if they can’t afford to see a doctor.
“Emergency departments aren’t full of people who have a sore throat and want to be seen, they’re actually full of people have a chronic disease who haven’t been seen. When a community has really good access to their GP, we prevent heart attacks, we prevent pneumonia – we treat it earlier, we prevent stroke, we prevent their mental health from getting too severe.”
