AMA Medical Fees Indexation review findings and adjustment

Updated information for AMA members and Fees List subscribers.

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 contains items and guidance fees for over 5,700 medical services.

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 per cent to all items on the AMA Fees List in early March 2023, bringing the total 2022 indexation to 5.58 per cent, to reflect the increased cost of providing medical services in the current economic environment. The AMA will continue to monitor additional indexes for significant fluctuations over the short term.

If you have any questions about 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.