IFC - Be educated, be very educated

The issue of informed financial consent (IFC) has become red hot in Canberra over the past month as mixed signals emerge from the Government and the private health insurance industry. But one signal is clear - they want to blame doctors for patient gap payments and hit them with new legislation if necessary.

All this pointscoring is going on as Dr Bill Glasson's Promoting Private Health Group (PPHG) - the AMA, the private hospitals and the funds - is charged with collaboratively developing IFC solutions under the watchful eye of Health Minister Tony Abbott.

But it has been the Minister's reported comments about legislating IFC that have sparked the current debate, making the work of the PPHG redundant.

These comments have been echoed in discussions with his advisers, and this is leading to considerable unease - especially with the Australian Health Industry Association (AHIA) joining the anti-doctor chorus.

The AMA, meanwhile, remains level-headed and reasonable, calling for education, not legislation, and recently set out its plans and objections in a letter to the Minister.

Signed by AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, the letter makes it clear that the Government has set too short a deadline to assess the effectiveness of any AMA-run education campaign to doctors of just six months, and warns that punitive action against doctors may backfire on the Government.

Dr Haikerwal also advised the Minister that the health insurers must accept their responsibility for uninformed medical gaps and, as an industry that enjoys considerable taxpayer funding, must do more to find an IFC solution.

Dr Haikerwal has said publicly on many occasions that the AMA supported the push to ensure patients were informed upfront about the out-of-pocket costs for health care, and that AMA efforts had contributed to IFC rates now being over 80 per cent, with much of the remainder being in areas where IFC is difficult to provide - anaesthesia, pathology, and surgical assistants.

"We believe legislation is unnecessary, we believe it is punitive and we believe it will make the system much more murky and would remove some of the efficiencies already achieved," Dr Haikerwal said.

The AMA has raised its concerns with the Prime Minister's Office and will seek further meetings with Mr Abbott in pursuit of an IFC outcome that benefits patients and doctors and meets the Government's objectives.

John Flannery, Managing Editor, Australian Medicine and Director, Public Affairs at the Federal AMA

[Australian Medicine, Volume 18, Number 8, May 1, 2006, page 3]

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