Why Do We Charge A Fee?
What is bulk-billing?
Medicare is a public health insurance scheme. It provides rebates (support payments) to you when you access eligible health services, such as visiting your GP. These payments are yours, not your GP’s. In most cases, the rebate you receive does not cover the total cost of the health service provided.
‘Bulk billing’ is when a doctor bills Medicare directly for the services provided to you, so you have no out-of-pocket expenses. If you are bulk billed, your doctor has accepted the rebate that Medicare pays for that particular service. The rebate for GP consultations is less than 50% of the fee that has been recommended by our nation’s medical associations.
Why do we charge a fee?
Simply put, the amount that Medicare pays for each appointment no longer covers the cost of running a medical practice.
Our clinic has been providing quality health care to our community since we opened our doors in 2005. There have been many challenges along the way, but none as difficult as the lack of funding for general practice perpetuated by successive governments. For the benefit of our patients, our clinic has been absorbing this loss for many years, but this is no longer sustainable for the practice. This is now the case for many GP clinics across Australia.
As of October 2022 the fees for Saturday morning clinics will change. Pensioners, Health Care Card Holders and Children from 16yrs will have an “out of pocket” fee of $20 after your Medicare rebate. We will continue to Bulk Bill Children under 16yrs and Veterans. The fee for all other patients for a standard consult will be $85.
Weekday billing will remain unchanged at present. Pensioners, Health Care Card Holders, Veterans and Children under 16yo will continue to be Bulk Billed. Other patients will continue to be privately billed.
This will allow us to maintain a high level of care for our patients.
We hope that in future Medicare will provide a higher rebate to our patients so that accessing healthcare will have a lower out-of-pocket cost.
If you have concerns about the rising out-of-pocket cost for healthcare, please notify your local state and federal members.