Extra support for veteran patients
An update on DVA healthcare items.
Among the changes announced in the last Budget, were some important measures to support veterans seeking health care. These followed significant AMA advocacy in the lead up to the Budget.
For GPs, the Veterans’ Access Payment (VAP) will be tripled from 1 November. The VAP is scaled according to rurality and this change will provide an extra $33.3m over four year for GPs caring for Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) card holders.
In addition, the DVA fee schedule will now be indexed according to the new indexation formula that has been adopted by the Government. Going forward the rate of indexation will generally be higher under the revised formula than has previously been the case. DVA advise that its fee schedule will also benefit from the additional round of indexation that will take place on 1 November this year.
Despite these welcome changes, the AMA is aware of growing member concerns about the adequacy of DVA fees and has been advocating on this issue for some time. More work on this is planned in coming months including meetings with relevant veterans’ organisations as well as specialty societies.