Got a Message from The Clinic That They Will Charge $30 from July 1

[Deactivated] on 03/06/2022 - 12:33
Last edited 03/06/2022 - 14:23 by 1 other user

Dear xxxxxx patients,

Starting 1 July 2022 we will be private billing patients for GP consultations.

This is due to substantial increase in cost for running the practice and constraints on our resources while Medicare rebate has barely increased in the past 10 years.

There will be an out of pocket fee of $30 for consults during regular business hours.

Kids 15 and under will be charged a discounted out of pocket fee.

Patients on concession cards will be bulk billed during regular business hours.

For patients with Medicare card, the rebate can be processed on the day.

Some consults including health assessments, care plans and immunisations can be bulk billed.

This is the message I got from the clinic I use for blood tests and sickie. I will stop going to the clinic, I don't get sick anyway. But what about people who get sick regular. Will they have to pay a fortune to save their life? Or at least now they have an incentive to get healthy. Is it case with all the clinics? If it is legal why aren't all the clinics not doing it?

Poll Options

  • 164
    Good to charge extra
  • 353
    It's a rip-off as we already pay for medicare
Health & Beauty

Comments

              • May4th on 07/06/2022 - 19:33

                @[Deactivated]: i think you may be better off seeing an integrative GP or naturopath, you know, the ones that charge $500 per consult

                • [Deactivated] on 07/06/2022 - 19:37
                  -1

                  @May4th: I’m good. My health is perfect. I know better about my body than those stupid gp or naturopaths

          • Amaris on 07/06/2022 - 21:16

            @[Deactivated]: medicine
            /ˈmɛds(ə)n,ˈmɛdɪsɪn/

            noun
            1.
            the science or practice of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease (in technical use often taken to exclude surgery).
            "he made distinguished contributions to pathology and medicine"
            Similar:
            medical science, practice of medicine, healing, therapeutics, therapy, treatment, healing art

            2.
            a drug or other preparation for the treatment or prevention of disease.
            "give her some medicine"
            Similar: medication, medicament, remedy, cure, nostrum, patent medicine

  • TigerWoops on 06/06/2022 - 19:47

    My previous clinic charges $30 for just booking. At least this is better than that.

  • istoleyourid2 on 07/06/2022 - 09:00

    Ask the practice what extra value you are getting out of it or change practices.

    Doctor I go to has 2 afternoons per week they bulk bill and all other hours are private billed but with appointments. I don't mind paying the private billing [queue ozbargain collective gasp] but there has to be some perk to it, otherwise why bother, go somewhere else that bulk bills. My doctor is good and very punctual…

    Scenario A - Go one of the afternoon's when they bulk bill and sit there for 2 hours with 10 pensioners waiting to see doc.
    Scenario B - Book in a 10am appointment, walk in at 9:58am, see doc at 10:00am maybe 10:01am if he's busy, walk out no later than 10:10am and pay $65 (get about $35 rebate from Medicare in my account 2 days later).

    • dmcneice on 07/06/2022 - 09:21

      This. We charge at our clinic. I remember as a student i went to BB clinics and use to wait a few hours to see the doctor. Now as a doctor, I make sure my patients dont wait more than 15 minutes, barring an emergency. I usually will BB "quick consults" - e.g. repeat prescriptions, vaccines, repeat referrals etc as I feel that charging the patient hasnt "gotten their money's worth" (despite it still taking up an appointment slot).

      Agree with the others, its about value. IMO, if your paying to see your doctor, the doctor should be:
      -Relatively on time
      -Be able to spend at least 15 minutes with you (save up multiple things to talk about if you need to) and not feel rushed
      -Feel your being listened to and the doctor takes their time to explain management to you.

      If your not getting that while paying, you should take yourself elsewhere.

  • BartholemewH on 07/06/2022 - 11:47

    Move to regional Australia. The last time I paid less than $75 (before medicare rebate) was more than a decade ago.

  • Ngliansheng on 07/06/2022 - 17:14
    +6

    I will start by saying that the vast majority of GPs are NOT primarily motivated by money, but money is still a motivating factor with work. If practices could properly bulk bill everyone most would. 
    Please spend the time to read this, hopefully you can understand the health system better, have a greater appreciation of your local GP, and consider why increasing medicare funding is a good thing. Hopefully you understand if the GP is ripping you off. 
    In the majority of healthcare the norm is to pay for your service, and then Medicare (or insurance) reimburses you for the health service provided.
    In the past GP clinics have just "bulk billed" by collecting this rebate from medicare instead of collecting money from the patient.
    By collecting this amount for the patient - this has resulted in free health services provided by GPs. However medicare has not increased in the past 10 years unlike pretty much every other industry. If rebates (revenue) has not increased over the past 10 years  but clinic expenditure has definitely increased, most practices find it difficult to absorb increasing costs of running a business and competitively paying GPs. There has been great opposition to medicare rebates increasing, as people feel that GPs make enough money and we need to keep health care cheap, but the reality is that a majority of GP practices can no longer be financially viable if they were to try and bulk bill and give the same level of service. 

    The only way for clinics to be viable is it either to charge a gap and provide the same quality of care, or to try and maximise medicare billings, in many ways at the expense of society. 
    Also, there is little understanding about the savings that can happen with good, appropriately remunerated health care. 
    When a patient comes in requesting for a routine colonoscopy a GP can "just do a referral" as often expected. Or they can sit there and go through your history, medical history. examine and decide if your situation actually warrants a colonoscopy, and if a patient is counselled against having an untimely colonoscopy that is not needed, this couple of minutes of time would save the public hospital system thousands of dollars. 
    Spending time examining a patient with a cold and convincing a parent that antibiotics is A LOT harder and more tedious than just giving antibiotics, but the health system as a whole is much better off if it is not overprescribed antibiotics when not required. 
    Whether a GP 'just referred' you without taking a proper history, or spent the time to take a history/exam and "didn't actually refer you", the billing for the GP is the same, but the GP who doesn't explain and just refers the patient ends up getting paid better per hour than the GP who does a proper explanation. However the cost to australians is significantly higher if more unnecessary colonscopies/investigations were not done.   
    A lot GPs that can be bothered to take the time to properly explain are working in private clinics or mixed billing clinics (private billing people who can afford to except for children/pensioners).Also often these private billed clinics are actually owned by doctors who want to provide great quality of care. Whereas the bulk billing practices are often owned by businesses, where the GPs do have KPIs to keep up, ie doctors expected to see a certain volume of patients. 
    If a patient comes in with 3 issues, a bulk billing clinic can sort your problem out one at a time and get you to come back again and again and get 3 billings. Whether its 6 minutes or 16 minutes the doctor gets paid one amount.The private billing clinic will tend to try and look at you and sort you out completely, because the doctor has been appropriately remunerated. Whereas the doctor in the bulkbilling practice is under pressure to just sort you one at a time, and if the doctor worked the same way a private billing doctor does they will get about half the income. In the bulk billing practice generally there is a long wait time and there are patients constantly in the wait room. Whereas in the private clinics generally they will try and place your appointment at a booked slot. If someone does not show up the GP does not have spare patients in the waiting room to take his place unlike in a bulk billing clinic. Clinics still run behind - if a doctor sees a suicidal patient and spend 45 minutes, all the cold flu patient who comes for a 5min consult can get frustrated over waiting half an hour just to be seen by a patient.   
    Not ALL bulk billing clinics are bad or owned by corporates or poorly run, but with how the system is it is getting harder to do so and it is hard to provide the same care to run a business. If someone was as a doctor and wished to provide quality health care, where would you work? Mixed bills allows for doctors to "work slower" which on paper seems less efficient but they are actually usually increasing standard of care. If a gp was looking for a job the options are often to either work for a corporate clinic which often do have KPIs, or a mixed billing practice where you can have greater satisfaction providing better care. 
    Bulk billing clinics can generally only have competitive salaries compared with mixed/private billing clinics if they compromise care. There are exceptions (rural areas with greater billings or clinics that have lower rents or owners that are willing to barely break even)
    Another issue of note is that people sometimes feel that doctors earn a lot so money so wages should not increase. But the reality is that it is, and the most financially well off doctors are the specialists- that continue to have income growth several times higher than GPs. if GP income is not matched then more great GPs will end up becoming specialists because GPs are generally underappreciated by society even though they play a vital role in healthcare - a competent GP when incentivised to work properly can save the health system a lot more money than most specialists can by coordinating care and preventing the worsening of disease and giving properly explanation to patients. 
    If everyone's expectation is for universal free health care then please lobby for medicare rebates to increase so bulk billing clinics that want to provide quality care can be financially viable.
    Also, as with any profession there are doctors out there who will just rort the system but the vast majority of GPs wish to do the right thing, but also expect to be paid appropriately, and in today's market the only way we can do so is to do mixed billings. If everyone chose bulk billing then do expect more bandaid type medicine rather than preventative medicine, and in the future we will increasingly see more corporates owning large super clinics with churn and burn mentality rather than doctor owned GP clinics and the cost to society to whole will increase.
    This is another issue with labour providing urgent care bulk billing clinics. The reason clinics don't run after hours bulkbilling practices is because it is not financially viable and this temporary influx of government cash will end up with clinics either closing at the end of reverting to mixed/private billing once the government funding ends. 
    Hopefully you find this info useful and have a better understanding about why mixed billing is not necessarily a rip off and there needs to be better awareness on this matter. 

    • Amaris on 07/06/2022 - 21:21
      +1

      Very well said. Thank you

  • inasero on 07/06/2022 - 18:52
    -1

    Ease of access, quality and price - pick two of three

  • Ryk on 07/06/2022 - 18:59

    haven't found a bulk-billing GP for nearly 10 years

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join