The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has urged the new Federal Government to boost investment in general practice following the latest changes to the MBS, which came into effect on July 1st.
The RACGP is particularly concerned by the financial implications resulting from this year’s MBS indexation increase of 1.6%, stating that the current method was a continued failure and contributing to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients nation-wide.
The indexation was calculated using the Wage Cost Index 5 method – resulting in annual increases lower than the Consumer Price Index – and was applied to most general medical services items, six pathology items, and all diagnostic imaging services (except for nuclear medicine imaging), including – for the first time – MRI diagnostic imaging services in Group I5.
RACGP President Adj. Professor Karen Price said that the indexation increase was insufficient, describing it as another ‘miserly’ reminder of why a boost in investment for general practice care is genuinely needed.
“The increase that came into effect does not accurately reflect high quality service provision of general practice care and the cost of living,” Professor Price said.
“To put it in perspective, and as we are all keenly aware – every time we visit the supermarket or fill up our car, inflation is rising and the forecast for 2022 is for headline inflation of around six per cent – this really underscores how little a 1.6% increase will make.
“A better measure of indexation would ensure automatic price increases for patient rebates that fully reflect the rising costs of living and the cost of practices providing world-class medical care.”
The RACGP President said that this was a long-term problem that needed to be urgently addressed, pointing out that the college has warned for many years that the current indexation method is not good enough.
“A continued failure to set patient rebates accurately coupled with years of zero or inappropriate indexation, means the July 1st rebate increase is little comfort to GPs and general practice teams,” Professor Price said.
“If practices are struggling to make ends meet due to Medicare rebates not keeping pace with the cost of providing high-quality care, they have little choice but to pass the cost on to patients.
“This, in turn, can lead to patients delaying or avoiding consultations and potentially even ending up in a hospital bed with a health concern that should have been seen to earlier by a GP.”
Despite indexation, the July 1st updates also included the Government’s welcome response to recommendations from the MBS Review Taskforce regarding colorectal surgery services, such as deleting outdated items, combining items that are provided together into a single item, and updating the descriptors of items to better describe modern techniques.
The Government also responded to recommendations from the independent Medical Services Advisory Committee on pathology services, prostate-specific membrane antigen PET services, abdominoplasty services and transcatheter aortic valve implantation services.
Changes to the Professional Services Review Scheme occurred as well, with the 80/20 rule reapplied to GP telehealth and phone items.
Under the 80/20 rule, a medical practitioner is taken to have engaged in inappropriate practice if they have rendered or initiated 80 or more ‘relevant service’ on each of 20 or more days in a 12-month period.
Similarly, the 30/20 rule, which applies to phone services performed by GPs and consultant physicians, was reintroduced on July 1st, meaning that a practitioner will be considered to have acted inappropriately if they conduct more than 30 phones services a day, more than 20 times in a year.
Those interested can find out more about the July 1st MBS update here.