Government must ‘urgently and substantially’ invest in general practice: RACGP President-elect Dr Harry Nespolon predicts a bleak future for Australian healthcare without major Government investment in general practice.
Billions in out-of-pocket costs show urgent need for investment in preventive health: RACGP A new report shows that Australians are spending almost $3 billion a year on out-of-pocket non-hospital healthcare expenses.
What GPs need to know for the start of the new financial year The new financial year will bring a number of important changes to programs and services that affect general practice. newsGP summarises some key information for GPs.
Medicare rebates to be reduced for non-VR doctors within five years The Federal Government is changing Medicare rebates for non-vocationally registered doctors who provide general practice services in a bid to encourage more to achieve Fellowship of the RACGP or ACRRM, and more doctors to work outside major cities.
Medicare freeze continues to thaw – but not fast enough, RACGP says The indexation of consultation items is not high enough to cover the true costs or value of general practice care.
Australians are visiting their GP more and more Australians now see their GP an average of 6.1 times a year, up from 5.4 times in 2010–11, according to new research.
Federal Government aims to better target bulk-billing incentives for rural areas The geographic eligibility criteria for rurality will be updated to better reflect current population data.
Federal Budget 2018–19: An overview for general practice There has been plenty written about this week’s Federal Budget. The RACGP has praised big-ticket spending in specialist GP training, rural health, aged care, and medical research, but there remains little detail on these and other areas.
High bulk-billing rate does not reflect true costs or value of general practice The Federal Government has reported a high bulk-billing rate for first half of the financial year, but the raw figures do not necessarily tell the whole story.
Outlining changes to urgent after-hours items The Federal Government’s changes to urgent after-hours Medicare rebates will take effect from 1 March.