Push for MBS health assessment eligibility for all ages

As recommendations from the 2020 MBS Review Taskforce continue to be investigated, the RACGP has submitted its thoughts on the latest review of health assessment items and called for eligibility to be expanded.
 
In a submission to the Department of Health and Aged Care, the college stated ‘health assessments should be available to patients of all ages, with recommended intervals varying depending on healthcare need’.
 
‘If this is not possible, expanding access to the 75+ health assessment to patients aged 65–74 should be prioritised,’ the submission reads.
 
‘This is preferable to singling out specific conditions upon which to base eligibility, which creates a hierarchy of diseases and is open to debate.’
 
Professor Mark Morgan, Chair of RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care, told newsGP the shake-up of these assessments is an opportunity for the Federal Government to invest more in preventive health.
 
‘We know that the total health budget spent on prevention is a little less than 2% and multiple authorities recommend an increase in prevention,’ he said.
 
‘Health assessments provide a really useful vehicle here to enable patients to have that planned, proactive and team-based care in general practice.’
 
The review is in line with the 2020 recommendations of the Taskforce, with consultation closing 30 September.
 
The RACGP has argued for a ‘moderate approach’ to reframing the MBS health assessment items with several key proposals for change.
 
Central to its proposal, outside of the expanded eligibility, is ensuring health assessments are aligned with the RACGP Red Book and linking items to MyMedicare whilst maintaining patient choice.
 
It has also recommended expanding target groups for time-based assessments, and ensuring item 715 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessments align with the NACCHO-RACGP National Guide.
 
It says there must be investment in active promotion of MBS items, to ensure GPs are aware of their billing options.
 
The submission notes, regarding expanding eligible target groups for time-based assessments, that changes endorsed by the Taskforce in 2020 are yet to eventuate.
 
‘The General Practice and Primary Care Clinical Committee recommended that the descriptors and explanatory notes for items 701, 703, 705, 707 and 715 be amended to expand eligibility to new at-risk populations and modify existing populations to better align with clinical and service needs,’ it reads.
 
‘This recommendation was endorsed by the MBS Review Taskforce, however any changes are yet to occur.’
 
The proposed new target groups the RACGP has put forward are women, children in out-of-home care and people leaving prison.
 
The RACGP’s final note warns against using any change to scale back funding or reduce the role of general practice.
 
‘The RACGP does not support any changes to health assessments that would reduce funding for these services or expand the scope of practice of other healthcare providers that sit outside of a multidisciplinary care team that includes a GP, and who are not trained to independently conduct assessments,’ it states.
 
But Professor Morgan is hopeful that the Government will see this as ‘an investment rather than a cost’.
 
‘If the Federal Budget can be built, and therefore the cost of the Medicare items is funded, then this could start quickly,’ he said.
 
‘GPs already attempt to do opportunistic and sometimes planned preventive care, but they’re often doing so at an unsustainable cost.
 
‘All the rhetoric, all the intentions of what’s said about the plans for the health system, aligns with this investment.’
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

health assessments MBS Medicare MyMedicare preventative health strengthening Medicare