Tyler Redway
THE Rural Doctors Association South Australia (RDASA) has said the $5 billion Medicare investment included in this year’s Federal Budget would hopefully ease the pressure on patients’ costs of living and encourage more practices to use bulk billing.
RDASA president Dr Peter Rischbieth said the initiative would encourage more bulk billing due to how the Government had recognised it was an underfunded area of focus.
“The amount paid to primary care practices has diminished compared to the cost of living and the cost of running a practice over the past 10 or 15 years,” Dr Rischbieth said.
“There needed to be a catch-up somehow to recognise the work of primary care practices, so this is a good start.”
Dr Rischbieth said the amount given by the investment would depend on the “rurality” of a practice or patient and added more regional doctors could receive a higher bulk bill subsidy.
“This is good for the patients and the viability of the medical practices and hopefully we can attract more doctors to work in general practice but also work in rural locations to work alongside practice nurses and allied health providers,” he said.
“We really needed to have a sign from the Government, which they have given through the Medicare announcements, to encourage sign-up of patients who may have a chronic condition and to have that close relationship with a primary care practice, the nurses and allied health who will hopefully be working around that patient to provide more comprehensive health packages for those with chronic disease.”
Dr Rischbieth said the payments would not be implemented until November this year and added practices would still need to keep up with strained costs of staff payments and upkeep until then.
He also said although the organisation welcomed the initiative, they were still concerned about whether the implementation of new nurses and caregivers would be forgotten.
“For the GPs, there will be more money coming in if they bulk bill their patients but for many other practices, it’s the question of will they be able to build that workforce around a patient and attract staff to work with them which will be the challenge for many rural areas,” he said.
Dr Rischbieth said the organisation recognised how many patients struggled to afford the cost of attending medical practices which did not include bulk billing.
He said the cost of living also expanded to how these practices are run.
“Many practices have found the costs of running their practices, paying their staff and the costs of power and heating and the context of wage growth for nurses and administrators being in the five to 10 per cent increase where there has been a Medicare freeze,” Dr Rischbieth said.
“Small or medium sized businesses, which is what most practices are, have had to work out how they can keep their practices sound financially while also providing their services and therefore there was a big drop in the bulk billing rate across Australia.
“Unfortunately for many rural patients, they have also borne the brunt of increased costs so it appears now with the strengthened Medicare announcement that there will be higher amounts of money which will be a part of the incentive for doctors to bulk bill their patients in general practice consultations.”
He said there had been a noticeable increase in patients cancelling or postponing medical appointments due to them not being able to keep up with the costs.
“I think a number of people have put off going to the doctor because of the costs associated with attending general practices and sometimes in some country hospitals the gap fees for what they charge for after hours visits at hospitals as well,” he said.
“This means the patients have not had their check-ups or haven’t seen people early on in the illness but have then developed complications from their condition, often which can have pretty serious consequences if delayed.
“Something like a small leg ulcer which has led to an amputation or a cough which led to pneumonia and hospitalisation and also chest pain which wasn’t assessed when they were having a heart attack.
“We’re all hoping this announcement will be taken up by the patients recognising the costs for them to go to the doctor will be minimised and GPs and general practices will continue to be able to provide the services not only from the doctors but also the nurses and allied health teams which are just as important.”
