In Practice: 1 January MBS changes

This week’s In Practice also includes a reminder for GPs to complete the Government’s general practice survey by February.
 
1 January 2024 MBS changes
New Year’s Day will bring a suite of changes to the MBS, including increases to the Original Medicare Safety Net (OMSN) and Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN), as well as the end of smoking cessation items.
 
From 1 January, the OMSN will increase from $531.70 to $560.40 and the EMSN will increase from $770.30 to $811.80 for concessional individuals and families, and from $2414 to $2544.30 for non-concessional individuals and families.
 
Smoking cessation items (93680, 93683, 93690, 93693, 93700 and 93703) will no longer be billable from 2024. These items were temporary items and have not been extended beyond 31 December 2023. GPs can continue to provide smoking cessation services to patients using general consultation items and their telehealth equivalents.
 
A summary of MBS changes beginning January 1 is available on the RACGP website.
 
General practice survey
The Department of Health and Aged Care (DoH) is seeking feedback from GPs via an online survey to measure the impact of Strengthening Medicare reforms.
 
The survey comprises multiple choice questions, mainly focused on bulk-billing behaviours since the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive on 1 November 2023.
 
It will form part of the monitoring and evaluation framework for the reforms, which DoH will develop to monitor progress of the staged implementation of measures, leveraging available data and information sources.
 
The survey will remain open until the end of February 2024. DoH have also developed a fact sheet on the Strengthening Medicare reforms, including MyMedicare.
 
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general practice survey In Practice MBS items Medicare reform