“As suggested today by an article in The Australian, Medicare itself is under disastrous mismanagement,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “The Department of Health, along with the Professional Services Review Board appear incapable of looking after the interests of patients trying to access services from an out of date not fit for purpose Medicare.”
“Rather than being interested in patients, it would appear that money is their main concern, just as it was with robo-debt,” said Dr Woodruff. “The example given in this article highlights the punishment of a dedicated team of health professionals looking after the most vulnerable in our community, spending extra time working as a team to address very complex issues. Most GPs don’t do this. Instead of being paid adequately for this type of extra-ordinary service, the doctor was financially punished and the teamwork denigrated. The reason the team was hounded was firstly because this team approach was used more than by most GPs which is how the regulators generally decide who to investigate, and secondly because the compliance requirements expected are invented by public servants who know nothing about working at the coalface and don’t care how onerous compliance is.”
“The recently released report into compliance and fraud highlighted many of the problems of an archaic Medicare,” said Dr Woodruff. “We support most of the recommendations including removal of the veto power of the Australian Medical Association on the appointment of the Chair of the PSR”.
“But compliance and fraud are not significant issues for salaried doctors in public hospitals or in community health centres. It’s time to move away from paying a fee for every separate bit of service provided,” said Dr Woodruff. “That would immediately limit problems of compliance and fraud.”
Dr Tim Woodruff
