Boost to Medicare funding for GPs and scans

The government has revealed large Medicare changes in an attempt to ward off another Labor ‘Mediscare’ campaign ahead of the Federal Election, with more health perks.

For the first time general practitioners will get paid when they contact patients over the phone and provide other non face-to-face care under a $1 billion program funded in the Budget.

The scheme will be offered to people aged over 70 who agree to enrol with a single GP practice that will manage all their health care.

In return for signing up patients will get wrap around care with doctors and practice nurses providing check up phone calls, referrals to specialists, prescriptions and test results over the phone.

It means elderly patients can get quicker access to care without having to wait for an appointment time to open up in the doctors schedule.

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People aged over 70 who agree to enrol with a single GP practice will get wrap around care, receiving everything from check up phone calls, to test results over the phone. Picture: Supplied

This group are the heaviest users of the health system and it is hoped their hospitalisation rate can be cut by providing more personalised co-ordinated care.

The Medicare freeze will be lifted on all GP services a year ahead of schedule in a move that will put an extra $187 million into doctors and patients pockets.

The co-ordinated care plan is part of a multi-billion dollar health budget designed to counter any Mediscare campaign launched by Labor at the upcoming election.

The government last night announced it would fund a breakthrough new treatment for lymphoblastic Leukaemia from May 1.

Without a subsidy this life extending medicine would cost patients $120,000 a year, its one of 31 new high cost medicines for a range of cancers and other conditions funded in the Budget.

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The Medicare freeze will be lifted on all GP services a year ahead of schedule in a move that will put an extra $187 million into doctors and patients pockets. Picture: iStock

The government has also outlined major investments totalling $32 billion from the Medical Research Future Fund for the development of cures for rare cancers, research into antibiotic resistance, brain cancer, genomics and bringing medical breakthroughs from the lab to the clinic.

There is funding for medical device registries that will record and track breast implants, cardiac implants, as well as registries for hip fractures and trauma.

Medicare rebates for X-rays and scans will rise in line with inflation for the first time in 20 years putting a brake on rising out of pocket expenses that now average $100 per scan.

Patients will get access to a new government funded website that will provide information on out of pocket expenses charged by surgeons so they can find the best deal, but it will be up to doctors to volunteer their fees to the website.

After intervening to overturn a government plan that would have saved consumers $240 a year by allowing them to get scripts filled every two months instead of every month chemists also scored an extra $245 million in extra taxpayer funding with an increase in the administration fees they are paid by the government.

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Medicare rebates for X-rays and scans will rise in line with inflation for the first time in 20 years. Picture: iStock

The government anticipates spending on child dental benefits will fall under a scheme that gives children access to $1,000 worth of Medicare funded dental care every two years as result of past budget cuts that mean fewer families qualify for Family Tax Benefit A

The government also hopes to save $296 million by slashing the number of overseas trained doctors working in major cities by 155 a year.

More children will get access to government funded flu vaccines which will now be available to all children aged six months to three years.

Medicare will fund a Heart Health Check that will calculate a person’s risk of having a heart attack in the next five years a response to News Corp’s campaign on heart disease.

The government will provide $20 million to fund the first nationwide anti-smoking campaign since 2012, a move News Corp and the Heart Foundation have campaigned for that will help cut heart disease.

There is also new money for a register and treatment programs for rheumatic heart disease, another key request in News Corp’s heart disease campaign.