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How should the 100% bulk-billing incentive loading be allocated?
With significant changes just months away, 71.6% of survey respondents said 100% of the loading should go to the GP, with individual arrangements for how the practice component is to be paid.
GPs at participating practices must bulk bill all eligible services for all patients to be eligible for the new 12.5% incentive loading.
GPs have made their views loud and clear when it comes to the allocation of a soon-to-be introduced bulk-billing incentive.
As part of the Federal Government’s efforts to incentivise bulk billing, from 1 November, the tripled bulk-billing incentive will be expanded to all Medicare-eligible people, with practices that bulk bill every patient eligible to receive an extra 12.5% loading payment on Medicare rebates.
In March, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DoHDA) said the incentive payment will be split between practices and GPs, and that this split ‘will be determined in consultation with the sector prior to the program’s launch’.
Ahead of the incoming changes, a recent newsGP poll asked GPs exactly how they would like the 12.5% bulk-billing incentive loading to be allocated.
Of the 1399 poll respondents, an overwhelming 71.6% of GPs said they believe 100% of the loading should be paid to the GP, with individual arrangements then determining how the practice component is to be paid.
Just 9.7% want the incentive payment to be split 50:50 between the GP and the practice, 10.8% said 100% of the payment should go to the practice, with the service entity distributing as agreed to the GP, while 7.9% said they were unsure.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told newsGP the poll’s results are in line with what he has been hearing on the ground, and highlight the importance of exploring how practices who take up the incentive will make it work best for them, their practice and their patients.
‘This is what I’ve been hearing – most GPs have said that this additional funding should just be paid the same way as other Medicare billings. That looks like the simplest way,’ Dr Wright said.
‘These poll results present a really useful range of views, and we look forward to working with the Health Department on this program.
‘The RACGP represents GPs working right across the country, including rural members and practice owners, so we are best placed to provide balanced insights into the design of this program.
‘The RACGP is the logical place for the Department to talk to in best designing this program to succeed.’
Associate Professor Rashmi Sharma, Chair of the RACGP Expert Committee – Funding and Health System Reform, said the poll results show the diversity of Australia’s GPs.
‘It’s something that needs clarity, and that clarity needs to be provided quickly,’ she told newsGP.
‘These are business decisions that directly affect the viability of practices in terms of the services that we can offer, the cost that we can absorb, and the payments to people that work within practice – it’s very, very complex.
‘Because of the complexity of this landscape, it’s really important that the Government sits down with the RACGP and actually works this out.’
Echoing Dr Wright’s calls, Associate Professor Sharma said any changes must be made in collaboration with the RACGP and its members.
‘It won’t be successful without the buy-in and trust from GPs and from practice owners, so there’s certainly got to be the detail worked out with the profession in terms of how it could actually work,’ she said.
‘My message to the Government is to talk to us, don’t just do it and then find out that people are just going to say, “well, that’s not actually how the real world works”.
‘At the end of the day, they have to also understand that this may require changes to contracts and those things take time – you need adequate time rather than just sorting it out the week before.’
newsGP contacted the DoHDA for comment.
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