Senior federal government ministers have described revelations that billions of dollars are rorted or wasted through the Medicare payments system each year as atrocious and alarming. They are right. The key question is what happens next.
Aninvestigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC’s7.30 program has found that up to 30 per cent of Medicare’s annual budget is being wasted each year by medical practitioners making errors or deliberately overcharging. Some doctors have charged for services that were either unnecessary or never delivered,including for dead people. Patient records have also been falsified with the aim of boosting profits.
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At the same time,doctors are calling for an increase to the Medicare rebate,which was frozen as a “temporary” measure by the Abbott government nearly a decade ago.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the idea that up to $8 billion a year could be wasted as “absolutely atrocious”,saying that every dollar rorted was a dollar stolen from people who need and deserve good healthcare.
Chalmers said the government needed to do more work to “get to the bottom” of the problem and crack down on anyone rorting the system. Citing theHerald’s reporting,Health Minister Mark Butler on Monday afternoon ordered a review of the Department of Health and Aged Care’s existing Medicare compliance,audit and review programs.
While theHerald supports this work,it should be tackled without delay and with an open mind by the department.
It is time for governments to now demonstrate the courage needed to hold the medical profession – and its powerful political lobby – to account for the delivery of health services. This is not,as the Australian Medical Association thundered on Monday,about attacking health professionals. It is about raising uncomfortable questions to make sure taxpayer money is valued,and patient safety is guaranteed.
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday,the vast majority of doctors do the right thing. But it would be akin to sticking your head in the sand to suggest that fraudulent activity is the domain of only a handful of bad eggs.
Just like the British and their affections for the National Health Service,Australians treasure Medicare. But unlike the NHS,which nationalised healthcare delivery by employing and paying doctors’ salaries,Medicare funds the existing system which privately delivers healthcare on a fee-for-service basis.