AMA Submission to the Department of Health Consultation: Oncology - Government response to MBS Review
The Department of Health’s MBS Taskforce is undertaking a program of work to consider how the more than 5,700 items on the MBS can be aligned with contemporary clinical evidence and practice in order to improve health outcomes for patients. The Taskforce has established Clinical Committees and Working Groups to undertake clinical reviews of MBS items.
The Taskforce, through the Oncology Clinical Committee, reviewed the 101 MBS items that cover investigatory and therapeutic procedures related to medical oncology, radiation oncology and sentinel lymph node biopsy. The Taskforce sought targeted feedback from key stakeholders in the oncology field and the AMA to review the Oncology report.
As with previous AMA submissions to the MBS Review consultations, this submission highlights the general policy issues relating to the proposed changes as well as feedback received from our members. A number of craft groups provided the Department of Health with their own submissions and we urged the taskforce to refer to those for the detail of their issues/concerns and that relate to particular specialty items.