You haven’t heard of a new trial called Health Care Homes – we don’t understand the name, by the way – but it’s a new scheme by the Government designed to provide the one in five Australians living with chronic illnesses with more proactive care from their GP.
Us taxpayers will be giving medical practices a one-off payment of $10,000 if they sign up for the trial, which is taking place across 10 regions of Australia from July 2017.
Under the scheme, GP’s will be given a monthly payment to care for chronically ill patients, rather than paying Medicare for every visit. This new monthly payment gives them an incentive to keep their patients coming back when they need to, rather than putting the visit off until they have deteriorated seriously.
GP’s will also need to register for the Government’s new My Health Record system, which lets patients’ information be shared more easily to better coordinate their medical treatment.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
An unfair criticism
But doctors’ and consumer groups were fuming after Minister for Health Sussan Ley announced the roll-out.
Their cause for complaint? Information published on the Department of Health website that seemed to ‘cap’ the number of GP visits a patient could have to five even though they may be unrelated to their chronic illness. Currently patients have unlimited access to GP care.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Bastian Seidel warned patients who couldn’t afford the full consultation fees would call an ambulance or go to the emergency department.
GP’s also leapt on the fact the release was issued at close to 5pm on a Friday, accusing the Government of trying to ‘hide’ the news.
No cap on GP visits
By the Monday, the Department’s website was already updated to remove the five-visit rule. The Government has since declared the cap was an “indicative figure for modelling and planning purposes” and that no patient’s access to Medicare would be limited.
But it was too late – the damage was done. The GP’s were angry.
But GP’s need a reminder – it benefits everyone to keep people with chronic illnesses out of expensive hospital care. These schemes have already proved successful in countries like New Zealand and Canada – why not here?
