Doctors claim 'one-minute visits'

Factory care .... One of the GPs forced to hand back cash had claimed rebates for more than 200 patients a day over several days - and 500 patients on one day. Source: ThinkStock

DOCTORS who claimed Medicare rebates for treating up to 500 patients a day have been ordered to pay back $1 million in taxpayer funds.

One of the doctors had claimed about $8300 to "eyeball'' a patient every minute over a single day.

The federal government's Medicare watchdog investigated dozens of doctors who claimed rebates for too many patients last year.

This comes as the government was again called on to make patients pay $6 for each bulk-billed doctor's visit.

The Health Department Professional Services Review (PSR) ordered 19 doctors to pay back a total of $1 million, and disqualified four of them from claiming any more Medicare benefits.

Investigations are triggered when GPs claim Medicare payments to treat more than 80 patients a day, on 20 days of the year.

One of the GPs forced to hand back cash had claimed rebates for more than 200 patients a day over several days - and 500 patients on one day.

If the doctor worked a standard eight-hour day, each patient would have spent less than a minute in the surgery, costing taxpayers about $16.60 per visit.

"The practitioner assured PSR that each of these patients had been 'eyeballed','' the PSR states in its latest annual report.

"This practitioner was associated with a company offering workplace health and safety services including vaccinations.

"The considered opinion of professional peers is that it is not possible given the complexities of modern medicine to effectively see, assess and manage such large numbers of patients.''

The evidence of "over-servicing'' renewed calls yesterday to make patients pay $6 towards the cost of free bulk-billed doctors' visits.

The Australian Centre for Health Research has proposed the idea to the federal government's Commission of Audit, which is finding ways to slash public spending in the May budget.

The submission's author, Terry Barnes - a former health policy adviser to Prime Minister Tony Abbott - yesterday said the surcharge would make patients "think twice'' about visiting a doctor for non-urgent matters.

One look, and you're done ... One of the doctors had claimed about $8300 to "eyeball'' a patient every minute over a single day. Source: ThinkStock

"Bulk-billing has always been open to abuse by unscrupulous doctors,'' he said.

"While most doctors do the right thing, it's more tempting to abuse Medicare when patients don't pay for their consultations.

"If co-payments apply to bulk-billed services, even as modest as the $6 as proposed, patients will be more aware and more likely to question the necessity and quality of their treatment.

"Surely that would make most GPs tempted to rort Medicare think twice."

But Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton yesterday said sick patients should not be discouraged from seeing a doctor.

"Discouraging visits might mean more people don't go until they get really sick, and that might divert people to emergency departments and ambulances which cost more than visiting a GP,'' he said.

Mr Barnes also suggested charging patients $6 to visit a hospital emergency ward, to prevent them from clogging up ER wards just to avoid paying for a GP visit.

But Australasian College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Anthony Cross yesterday warned that poor people might miss out on health care.

"A $6 co-payment would be such a small fraction of the operating costs of the emergency department I'm not sure it would make a meaningful difference,'' he said.

"A lot of our patients come from low socio-economic backgrounds and it would mean people might delay or not seek care when it's appropriate.''

A former WA Liberal MP and GP, Dr Mal Washer, has told the doctors' publication Medical Observer that a $6 co-payment would be "a disincentive for over-servicing''.

The Labor Party this week urged supporters to donate to a campaign to "save Medicare'', claiming that "the most vulnerable Australians will be forced to pay to see a GP".

But acting federal Health Minister Kevin Andrews accused the Opposition of "scaremongering'' and insisted the Government "has not considered or proposed to introduce a co-payment''.

The latest Medicare data shows that Australians are now paying twice as much in out-of-pocket fees for doctors' visits than they did a decade ago.

The average patient contribution for a doctor's visit was $28 last financial year - up from $14 in 2003/04.

The statistics show that 81 per cent of GP visits are bulk-billed - up from 67 per cent a decade ago - although the numbers vary between suburbs.

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