The Albanese Government is making it easier to see a bulk billing doctor for more than 11 million Australians, with the largest investment in bulk billing in the 40-year history of Medicare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From today, the incentive that general practitioners receive to bulk bill children under 16, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession cardholders will be tripled for most common GP consults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be easier to find a bulk billing doctor for around 5 million children and their families and 7 million pensioners and other concession cardholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, these patients account for around 3 out of 5 visits to the GP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the 2023-24 Budget, the Albanese Government also announced a $1.5 billion indexation boost to Medicare payments, with the increase also taking effect today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, the indexation boosts in July and November have delivered the largest increase to Medicare payments since Paul Keating was Prime Minister, delivering a larger increase in one year than the former government delivered over seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The indexation boost and tripling of the bulk billing incentive provides a significant increase to the Medicare payments that GPs get to bulk bill eligible patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our major cities, a doctor will get 34% more for a standard bulk billed consultation of under 20 minutes (a Level B consultation), taking the Medicare payment for eligible patients to $62.05.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In regional and rural Australia, a doctor will get around 50% more for the same visit, taking the Medicare payment to between $72.80 and $81.10, depending on location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A new Medicare rebate for GP consultations of 60 minutes or longer will also commence today, giving patients a rebate of $191.20 and doctors the time to provide better care for people with complex physical and mental conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patients registered with MyMedicare will now be able to access Medicare rebates for longer telephone consultations from their registered practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MyMedicare is the foundation upon which a stronger, more personalised Medicare will be built, with patients to get more tailored quality care from their regular general practice, doctor and primary care team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since voluntary registration for MyMedicare opened to patients on 1 October, more than 150,000 people have registered with their preferred general practice and will now get access to longer telehealth consults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re delivering the biggest investment in Medicare in over 40 years, with more incentives for bulk billing and 58 new Urgent Care clinics across Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese changes to the Medicare bulk billing incentive will make it easier, and cheaper for more than 11 million Australians to visit a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCombined with our cheaper medicines policy, electricity bill relief, cheaper child care and increased rent assistance, we\u2019re continuing to deliver targeted cost of living relief without adding to inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe tripling of the bulk billing incentive will help over 5 million children and their families, and more than 7 million pensioners and concession card holders to see a bulk billed GP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDoctors\u2019 groups have called this a \u2018game-changer\u2019 and GPs right around the country have said this will help them maintain and even shift back to bulk billing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeter Dutton froze the Medicare rebate when he was Health Minister 10 years ago – a freeze that remained in place for six long years and led to a very substantial decline in bulk billing in general practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBulk billing is the beating heart of Medicare and Labor will always strengthen it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Albanese Government is making it easier to see a bulk billing doctor for more than 11 million Australians, with the largest investment in bulk billing in the 40-year history of Medicare. From today, the incentive that general practitioners receive to bulk bill children under 16, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession cardholders will be tripled … Continue reading “Medicare bulk billing strengthened as largest investment in 40 years takes effect”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23896,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23895\/revisions\/23896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}