Budget delivers reform to Medicare and general practice
The federal government’s budget this week includes a suite of reforms to ensure Medicare is fit for purpose and comes after strong AMA advocacy and advice to the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.
This week’s budget saw billions of dollars earmarked for primary care (see previous story) and, importantly, a host of reform measures, which will ensure general practice is equipped to deliver care for Australians now and into the future.
Many of the reforms resulted from the AMA’s advocacy and plan to Modernise Medicare, which included Voluntary Patient Enrolment on the basis it enables additional funding to support patient care.
The government announced its voluntary patient registration model, ‘MyMedicare’, giving patients the opportunity to enrol with their preferred GP.
AMA President Professor Steve Professor Robson said while most of the implementation detail still needs to be worked through, it appeared VPE will open up funding and access to additional telehealth services, enhanced GP led care for frequent hospital users, better targeted chronic disease items, and extra incentives for GP services in Residential Aged Care.
“With this model, the government has rejected the concept of capitation and has committed to strengthening blended funding arrangements for general practice where funding is made available in addition to existing fee for service arrangements. We will be closely examining the model and its implementation to ensure it adequately supports general practice.”
The AMA had also called for a significant investment in the Workforce Incentive Program for General Practice, to allow our GPs to expand their practices. This is to be delivered through $445.1 million in funding.
We were particularly pleased to see a wound care scheme for general practice developed and modelled by the AMA, attract nearly $50 million for its implementation, starting with diabetes patients.
Speaking at Parliament House after the budget, Professor Steve Robson welcomed the commitments to reform primary care.
“We knew that primary care and general practice needed long-term reform and we're delighted to see initiatives and funding that put general practices at the heart of long-term reform and build the teams around them that can provide care for Australians with complex and chronic conditions.”
“We are also particularly pleased to see the $445.1 million in additional funding for the Workforce Incentive Program, which has been underfunded for years. This extra money will encourage general practices to engage more nursing and allied health professionals and support the delivery of well-coordinated multidisciplinary care — all under one roof.
“$99.1 million in new funding for GP consultations that last for sixty minutes or longer will help those patients with very complex health care needs and support GPs to spend more time with these patients.
“We've also seen funding for things the AMA has been taking to government about; like longer Telehealth consultations and longer in-person consultations. We've asked for better funding models for wound care. All of these things have been listened to and we're delighted the government has responded with funding.”
