AMA Fees List indexation and items update

The AMA Fees List team have some more updates for members and Fees List subscribers, with further updated in March 2023.

Review of AMA Medical Fees Indexation - findings and adjustment

The AMA List of Medical Services (AMA Fees List) is provided free to members (and to subscribers through a paid licence) for costing assistance and guidance on medical fees.

The AMA Fees List is indexed annually based on macroeconomic indices that better reflect the price increases related to providing medical services, when compared to Medicare’s substandard indexation rate.

The AMA’s indexation is a weighted average of the annual changes in a number of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) cost and wage indices. The AMA’s indexation methodology has consistently provided higher indexation than that used for other schedules, such as the MBS.

However, the recent and rapid growth in inflation in Australia towards the end of 2022 saw members tell us that they had seen immediate and rapid price increases for medical practices, of which a proportion were potentially not captured by the lagging, 12-month ABS measures used to underpin the AMA’s regular, annual indexation. As such, an economist led review was undertaken by the AMA at the end of 2022 to investigate the latest inflation and wages data.

The findings of the review noted the AMA’s indexation methodology was sound, defensible and should be retained. However, it also noted that the rapid increases in costs in the latter part of 2022, particularly in relation to costs such as salaries (where demand is outstripping supply and putting pressure on wages), was likely impacting medical practices and may not show up in all ABS datasets immediately.

The AMA determined the spike in these costs needed to be reflected in the short term, for the AMA Fees List to continue to be an accurate and useful guide for members and subscribers.

Therefore, the AMA will make an additional indexation adjustment of 2.13% to all items on the AMA Fees List in early March 2023, bringing the total 2022 indexation to 5.58%, to reflect the increased cost of providing medical services in the current economic environment. Going forward, the AMA will continue to monitor additional indexes for significant fluctuations over the short term.

If you have any questions regarding the AMA indexation or Fees List, please do not hesitate to contact the team at feeslist@ama.com.au. And of course, the AMA also continues to strongly advocate on the issues of inadequate MBS rebates and indexation on behalf of all GP and non-GP members, and will use the AMA’s experience with the Fees List to further highlight the inadequacy of Medicare’s methodology.

Next Fees List items update

The AMA Fees List will be releasing an update in early March 2023 in response to changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) that came into effect on 1 November 2022. The following changes will be updated in the AMA Fees List and will be available on the Fees List website (including PDF and CSV files for download): 

• Surgical Operations:
  • Orthopaedic surgery (3 new items, 5 amended items)
  • Melanoma excision (7 new items, 6 amended items)
  • Cardiothoracic surgery (2 new items, 6 amended items)
  • Varicose veins (6 amended items)
• Diagnostic Procedures
  • Vascular (1 amended item)

The remaining 1 November MBS changes will reflected in the Fees List at the next update. Detailed information on the MBS changes can be found in the Department of Health fact sheets and quick reference guides available on MBS Online here. 

If you have any questions regarding the AMA indexation or require draft AMA fees for any items still being processed, please do not hesitate to contact the team at feeslist@ama.com.au.