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Practice viability: ‘It’s about delivering the best care’
How do you optimise your billing strategy? Or implement a new billing model? An RACGP toolkit helps navigate these complex changes.
Included in the RACGP’s toolkit is the ‘Optimising your billing strategy’ CPD activity.
‘Viability is also about you, the practitioner, the provider of services, being able to continue to do this day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out, month-in, month-out, year-on-year.’
That is according to Dr Michael Bonning, Chair of the RACGP’s Business Viability Working Group.
He knows all too well the importance of general practices remaining viable, saying ‘it’s about delivering the best care, but it’s also about wanting to not burn out’.
But how do GPs and practices approach the complex and sensitive task of billing?
In 2025, medical centres across Australia are facing more pressure than ever before, but in a three-part series, the RACGP is highlighting the suite of resources it has available to help GPs navigate these complexities.
Included in the college’s toolkit is the ‘Optimising your billing strategy’ continuous professional development (CPD) activity.
Dr Ken McCroary, a GP in south-west Sydney and RACGP Business Viability Working Group member, said trying to improve practices so they remain functional is one of the most crucial things the RACGP can do.
‘Viability is funding quality care which will lead to improved outcomes for our patients and our community,’ he told newsGP.
‘When we all graduated, we had no business training, management skills or anything like that, and we just fumbled around and tried your best to survive, and see patients, and make it better, but it’s still hard.
‘There’s so much red tape and so much additional burden upon the practice to remain open with payments, and utilities, and staff, and all the stuff that goes with that.’
With this in mind, the RACGP’s five-part, self-directed ‘Optimising your billing strategy’ activity is designed to walk GPs through new billing strategies.
It also covers how to effectively implement a new billing model to improve the financial and business sustainability of their practice.
The five activities, which can be completed individually or with others in a practice, are:
- what to consider when choosing your billing model
- understanding your practice costs and identify current billing arrangements
- testing alternative billing arrangements and strategies
- setting fees and building your fee list
- implementing your new mixed billing policy.
The first three activities are designed to help GPs evaluate the efficacy of their current billing approach, while the final two aim to help GPs smoothly transition to a mixed billing model.
Upon completing all activities, GPs will receive 1.5 Educational Activities hours, 11 Reviewing Performance hours, and 7.5 Measuring Outcomes hours.
While the changing of fees can be a daunting thought for GPs, practices, and their patients, Dr Bonning said most patients he speaks to are happy to recognise ‘the services they receive are excellent and they could and would be willing to pay for them’.
‘Especially in this context where bulk billing and out-of-pocket fees are a really significant public discussion, you can say, “well, this is how we want to set a fee, because we want to be able to provide the best care”,’ he told
newsGP.
‘At the end of all of these conversations, it’s not about making more money, it’s about being able to provide the type of care that you want to provide as a practitioner, and oftentimes that means thinking about, “well, how do I justify the time I spend with a patient?”.
‘It’s about making sure your practice does things consistently so that patients have a reasonable expectation of what is going to happen when they come to visit you.’
For those seeking further information on practice viability, the RACGP Practice Owners Conference 2025 will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on 24–25 May.
Register online.
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