This is a Private Billing Practice.

Bulk Billing is limited to children under 12, DVA, blood test appointmentnd certain eligible pensioners.

Health Care Card holders, Pensioners and Retirees will be charged a discounted appointment fee

For further information on our private billing policy please see below

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       Appointment Type

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Short (<5 mins)

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Standard

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Long (>20 mins)

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Extended (>40 mins)

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Discounted Fees

(Followup appointments, Results, Pensioners, Retirees)

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Appointment Type

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Short (<5 mins)

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Standard

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Long (>20 mins)

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Extended (>40 mins)

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Bulk Billed and Private Patients

Out of pocket expenses

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Due to the failure of successive governments to increase the Medicare rebate in line with inflation, we cannot absorb the cost of any services which are not Medicare rebatable and these costs will be passed on to ALL patients.

 

• Repeat prescription without an appointment - $5.00 ($10.00 if posted to a pharmacy)

• Updated referrals without an appointment - $10.00

• Consumables for procedures - $40.00

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WHY DON’T WE BULK BILL EVERYONE?

 

Bulk billing is when a doctor accepts the rebate paid by the government as full payment for the service they have delivered.

 

When the government first introduced Medicare in 1985 the rebate was 85% of the AMA scheduled fee. However successive governments have failed to increase the Medicare rebate in line with inflation (and did not increase it at all for 5 years from 2013), and now the rebate amount is less than half of what the AMA recommended appointment fee is (which is increased yearly in line with CPI). So when patients who are not concession card holders are bulk billed, the medical centre receives only $37.60, instead of our standard fee of $75.00 (which is less than the AMA scheduled fee of $80.00)

 

 

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The fees generated from patient appointments have to cover all the expenses of running a medical centre, including wages of reception, administration and cleaning staff, building lease, electricity, phones, computer and software fees, insurance etc, all of which have been increasing with inflation, as well as the doctors salary. As the gap between rebate increases and cost increases widens, it has become more and more difficult to maintain a viable business.

 

Currently we continue to bulk bill pensioners, children under 16, and health care card holders, in order to ensure that cost is not a barrier to health care access to these financially challenged groups, however we cannot maintain a viable business by bulk billing all patients.

 

HOW DO OTHER PRACTICES MANAGE TO BULK BILL ALL PATIENTS?

 

There may be various reasons why this may happen.

• Larger practices have efficiency of scale – a single doctor practice is the least economically efficient model. However small towns do not have a big enough population to support multiple doctors.

• Practices that cater to populations with particularly poor health outcomes such as Aboriginal Medical Services have different funding models from the Health Department to allow improved access to medical care.

• Practices may offer only short appointment times – the rebate fee is the same whether the patient spends 6 minutes with the doctor or 20 minutes, so instead of scheduling 4 appointments per hour as we do, they may schedule double that amount, but only spend half as much time with each patient. This doubles their income but can compromise patient care.

• Practices may employ doctors who are not recognized as specialist GPs (ie lack the RACGP qualification) and then pay the doctor a lower income as they are less qualified.

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