A message from your doctor

The government and media announced increased bulk billed care is possible via the tripling of the incentive payment applicable to some attendances. In limited general practice settings, such as large volume based corporate clinics this may be possible. Unfortunately, some important details relating to these changes were not communicated or explained. Increased incentive payments present as a generous solution; however this is not the reality for most doctors providing services from small to medium general practices.

Incentive payments differ from Medicare rebate payments. Medicare rebates are the government’s contribution to the cost of your healthcare. The Medicare rebate represents only a portion of the cost for a doctor to deliver healthcare. An incentive payment is a minimal amount added to the government’s contribution (the rebate) for patients of a certain age and or concessions status.

The government has frozen their contributions (rebates) to your healthcare for a number of years and the increase in the small incentive payment does not go far enough to cover the true cost of care. Recent budget announcements leave rebates relatively unchanged.

When a doctor bulk bills, the doctor and the practice providing the doctor with support services receive considerably less than required to maintain a quality general practice, despite the increased incentive payment announcement. If your local coffee shop reduced prices by 40-50% while facing increasing running costs, they would likely be forced to close fairly quickly. If your weekly grocery shop cost was halved, there would be few supermarkets left. Seeing your doctor works much the same way – rebates and incentives cover roughly half the cost of the service, which includes an array of running costs and expenses.

In an inflationary environment and without substantial investment into Medicare rebates, bulk billing remains unviable for many doctors. As the cost to provide medical services continues to rise, it is unfortunate rebates continue to fall short. My fellow colleagues and I plan to continue delivering quality care to our patients, therefore, our considered move towards increased private billing must continue despite recent announcements and media coverage.

Doctors consulting from Labrador Medical Centre rooms