Medical colleges make joint call for ethical billing

The 16 Australian medical colleges have joined forces with a shared national framework setting out standards for ethical billing, fee transparency and informed financial consent.
 
The Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC), which includes the RACGP, launched the new framework at Parliament House on Thursday.
 
Principles within the framework include the plain-language declaration of costs, informed financial consent as a prerequisite to treatment, as well as ‘compassionate billing that accounts for patients’ circumstances’.
 
‘While specialist medical colleges in Australia do not set or regulate fees, we have long upheld expectations of ethical, transparent and patient-centred practice from our members, recognising that appropriate billing is part of professional conduct,’ the framework states.
 
‘Patients deserve clear, fair and respectful communication about the costs of their care.
 
‘At a time when Australians are increasingly concerned about the cost of accessing specialist medical services, it is important that the sector clearly articulates the professional expectations that already guide our work.’
 
CPMC Chair Associate Professor Kerin Fielding said patients deserve clear information about costs, and to have confidence in the transparency and fairness of billing practices.
 
‘This framework reinforces that informed financial consent is not complete unless patients have had a genuine opportunity to understand the financial implications of their care, including available alternatives,’ she said.
 
She told The Australian that a single national standard supported by all the specialist medical colleges is ‘an unprecedented demonstration of consensus’ that sends a ‘clear signal’ from the medical profession.
 
‘Informed financial consent, documented in the patient record before non-urgent treatment, is now an explicit, sector-wide standard backed by all 16 colleges,’ she said.
 
‘This framework is the medical profession speaking with one voice about what it expects of its members.
 
‘Where practitioners break the law – failing to get proper financial consent, misleading patients on costs, illegal billing – we support enforcement, full stop.’
 
The launch of the new framework comes a short time after legislation was introduced to Parliament designed to make the display of non-GP specialist fees the default option on the Federal Government’s Medical Costs Finder website.
 
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