Streamlined Authority Prescription System About to Start, But More to Do - AMA
Chair of the AMA's Therapeutics Committee, Dr John Gullotta, said today that the much-improved streamlined authority prescription system takes effect from 1 July, but it is still a work in progress.
Exactly twelve months ago today, the AMA released analysis that showed under the current system the equivalent of 240 full-time doctors spent their whole year on the phone waiting for Medicare Australia to approve authority prescriptions. This translated to 1.3 million patient consultations lost because of red tape.
Since that time, the AMA, the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA), and Medicare Australia have worked together to improve the system for doctors and patients.
Dr Gullotta said the streamlined system means that for 200 of the 450 PBS items that require authority doctors will no longer have to spend time waiting on the telephone for clearance.
"They will still be subject to an authority, make no mistake about that, but a quick and easy four digit code replaces the long wait on the end of a phone.
"These streamlined authorities will still be subject to Medicare Australia's legal requirements and audit procedures.
"It means that the doctor can spend more time being a doctor, not a clerk.
"The AMA estimates that this long-awaited reform will reduce 30 per cent of the volume of calls that doctors currently have to make to Medicare Australia for authority medicines.
"This will make a huge difference, but the AMA's work on authority prescriptions is not finished.
"We know that further streamlining is possible and we will continue our work with DoHA and Medicare Australia to make it happen."
Dr Gullotta said that the majority of doctors will have access to prescribing software to use the streamlined authority system on-line, which will provide further efficiencies.