Pandemic Planning Debrief

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, has written to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Nicola Roxon, requesting that the Government hold a specific clinician-led pandemic debrief in the near future.  The H1N1 pandemic has highlighted a number of lessons to be learnt in planning and preparing for the next pandemic wave in Australia. 

The AMA believes a clinician-led pandemic debrief would assist the Government’s pandemic planners in better understanding the role of general practice in a pandemic situation.  It would inform the Government’s preparations for the next wave of H1N1 and for future pandemics.  Most importantly, it would ensure that measures are in place to address the reality that general practice is always going to be the first point of call for the majority of the public. 

Ensuring that general practice is supported to safely care for the community during a pandemic should be a fundamental part of the Australian pandemic plan.

MBS Simplification

Following a request from the AMA, UGPA agreed to write to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Nicola Roxon, urging the government to progress the MBS simplification agenda. This week members of United General Practice Australia (UGPA) including the AMA sent a letter to the government outlining the urgency of finalising this matter.

In December 2008 the Government announced they would undertake a review of the GP consultation items in the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) with a view to:

• Revising the MBS item descriptors for the level C and D items to recognise prevention activities and to remove any confusion over the use of these items;
• Streamlining MBS chronic disease management items by removing duplication in existing items;
• Rationalising the different health checks outlined in the MBS – moving to a structure based on the complexity of the check;
• Rationalising the MBS items for out of surgery visits (except RACF visits);
• Rationalising the MBS items for after hours care;
• Rationalising the MBS case conferencing items.

The above changes were due to be in place on 1 July this year.  Yet despite the Minister being provided with a report from her department in sufficient time to meet the implementation deadline there has been no further communication regarding the MBS simplification. 

While government officials have already indicated that this review process is not expected to deliver the wholesale simplification of general practice MBS items that we know is wanted and needed, the proposed changes support and encourage more preventative care, assist in simplification of the system, and would provide important clarification of the level C and D MBS item descriptors.  The AMA will continue to push for the government to deliver on its commitment to this process as well as for broader sensible reforms to general practice MBS items.

UGPA urge online claiming transaction support

As previously advised, on 6 November 2009 the AMA wrote to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Nicola Roxon, and the Minister for Human Services, Mr Chris Bowen seeking Government recognition of and support for the additional costs to medical practices of processing Medicare claims.  This week members of United General Practice Australia, including the AMA, sent a further letter to both ministers reinforcing the profession’s concerns about this issue.

With the expiration of the Transitional Support Package on 31 December 2009 practices will have to incur the full cost of processing online claims.  UGPA has urged the Government to introduce a new ongoing payment for medical practices for each claim for Medicare benefits they lodge electronically on behalf of patients. This approach would be consistent with the one taken by Government with pharmacies, where each prescription processed using PBS Online attracts a 40-cent payment.