Many Illawarra and South Coast doctors will reduce the number of patients they bulk bill, and increase their fees, in response to federal government changes to Medicare.
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From next Monday the Medicare rebate for a ‘‘level A’’ consultation of 10 minutes or less will be reduced from $37.05 to $16.95.
If you are bulk billed your GP will be forced to absorb the $20.10 difference. If you pay to see your doctor, your out-of-pocket cost or gap fee will increase by that amount.
Dr Kate Manderson, who runs Nowra’s Worrigee Street Medical Centre, said the changes would force many GPs to dramatically reduce bulk billing at their practices.
‘‘At the moment, around 85 to 90 per cent of our patients are bulk billed but as of next week we will not be able to afford to be as flexible, as discretionary, as generous, as we have been historically,’’ she said.
‘‘These federal government measures are forcing us to introduce a strict ruling that if a patient does not have a concession card, then they cannot be bulk billed.
‘‘I imagine that will reduce the amount of patients who are bulk billed in our practice to around 60 per cent.’’
Dr Manderson said a new, higher, fee schedule would also be implemented at the Nowra practice from next week to cope with the changes announced by the Abbott government just before Christmas.
‘‘We are expecting a backlash from patients, who will be challenged to come up with the extra money or may move to another practice,’’ she said.
Milton GP Brett Thomson was also critical of the changes, which came two weeks after the federal government abandoned its original budget plan for a $7 GP co-payment.
‘‘They couldn’t get support for their GP tax so they decided to get the funds a different way by reducing the Medicare rebate,’’ Dr Thomson said.
Dr Thomson runs Milton Medical Centre which will also be looking at changing its fee schedule in coming weeks.
‘‘We were bulk billing 80 per cent of patients; that will have to come down to around 60 per cent or even lower,’’ he said.
Dr Thomson said the move may see GPs or patients push visits over 10 minutes to a ‘‘level B’’ consultation, which will still attract a rebate of $37.05. This would see waiting times ‘‘blow out’’ and would mean fewer appointments were available.
‘‘By making these changes, the government is showing no recognition for the complexity or skill that is required for anything less than 10 minutes,’’ Dr Thomson said.
‘‘It’s taking away the value of the GP being the first port of call for people and may result in people either putting off medical appointments, or heading straight to hospital emergency departments.’’
Throsby MP Stephen Jones said he was already hearing a lot of concerning reports about the impact of the change from doctors in his electorate.
‘‘The government’s GP Tax Mark II is just as bad as the original, it should be dumped immediately and forgotten,’’ he said.
A spokesman for Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley said the majority of GP consultations in Australia lasted over 10 minutes and would therefore be unaffected.
‘‘Under current rules, a GP can access Medicare rebates for up to 20 minutes, even if their patient is in and out the door in six minutes,’’ he said.
‘‘These changes more accurately reflect the time a doctor spends with their patient and encourage longer GP consultations for better health outcomes, not ‘six minute medicine’.’’
The change comes alongside a $5 cut to all Medicare rebates for GP consultations which will apply to non-concessional patients from July 1.
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