Medicare incentive to encourage more bulk-billing in Bendigo

From November 1, the bulk-billing incentive for a standard consultation will increase from $10.05 to $31.40, with the total amount of money covered by Medicare increasing from $49.80 to $72.80.

The change will allow general practitioners to choose to bulk-bill concession cardholders and children under the age of 16, removing the gap fee for an average 15-minute doctor's appointment.

The announcement came as many medical clinics, including Bendigo Primary Care Centre, moved to a private billing model to cover overhead costs.

Bendigo Primary Care Centre chairperson Chris Holmes said he welcomed the increased incentive.

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"The fact that this centre needed to, for financial reasons, make that very difficult decision indicated the stress that the whole system has been under," he said.

"Our GPs are very dedicated to their patient group, it gives them the choice to look after those patients without feeling they either have to make hard decisions about whether to see [them] or how many they can see.

"I think it's really important that doctors have that choice because at the moment the people who most need healthcare are the ones who are really suffering to access it."

Acting general manager of the centre, Callum Wright, said the incentives would allow "doctors to spend the time they want to with the patients".

Mr Wright said a "six-minute medicine model", a claim where bulk-billing doctors would see more patients in a quicker amount of time to maximise incentives, was not happening with most doctors in Bendigo.

"These aren't wasteful people," he said.

"I know we hear stories about rorts and other things and in any system there'll be people that do that, but I'd have to say, knowing a lot of doctors around Bendigo that 99 per cent of them are doing the right thing."

Ms Chesters said bulk-billing rates in Bendigo had collapsed during the last decade, with GPs feeling the pressure of rising costs.

Just four clinics were bulk-billing in Bendigo, about 11 per cent of all clinics, with most charging a mix of bulk-billing and private fee, depending on the individual GP.

Ms Chesters said the increased incentive was a "game changer".

"The change that we've announced in the budget [is] that first big step to restore Medicare to be that universal healthcare system that we want and hope it to be," she said.

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Ms Chesters said it would help more than 76,000 patients in the electorate.

"GPs can now choose to bulk-bill their patients if they want to because they will actually be properly rewarded by the government," she said.

"At a time when cost of living is really starting to hurt, this means that you won't have to think about it if you're a pensioner, if you've got a child under 16 who needs to see a GP, you don't have to think about 'where am I going to find the gap fee?'"

Patients over the age of 16 and are not concession card-holders would still be charged a gap fee, which was the difference between the amount a doctor charges and the amount covered by Medicare.

Ms Chesters said the change was made for the specific groups which represented 70 per cent of some GPs workload and were the "most vulnerable" people.

"There's only so many dollars in the health budget and what the government's decided to do is invest it in the people who've been trying to keep concession card-holders and pensioners and children healthy," she said.

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