Doctors threaten to quit their jobs after reports of Medicare rorting

The Health Minister says he will “come down on the side of truth” as he confirmed an investigation into an alleged $8bn Medicare rort.

One of Australia’s top doctors said medics are threatening to quit their jobs after reports claimed the profession was riddled with rorting.

On Monday, it was suggested as much as $8billion was rorted from Medicare annually, which prompted the head of the Australian Medical Association Professor Steve Robson to comment.

Professor Robson shared a tweet that suggested doctors were leaving general practices as a result of the reporting.

He shared a picture from a GP, which read: “Many GPs sending me DMs like this in the last 24hours”.

The tweet showed a picture of a chat message which read: “I’m done with all the abuse and politics. Gonna (sic) go back into hospital work.”

Excellent work @abc730https://t.co/gH88xNjS4O

— AMA President (@amapresident) October 18, 2022

The tweet came as Health Minister Mark Butler said the amount of money claimed to be have been rorted by medical practitioners from Medicare was “extremely high,” while confirming a departmental analysis into the $8bn figure.

Speaking on national radio, the Health Minister said he would “come down on the side of truth” after the Australian Medical Association blasted the rorting claims, published following an investigation by Nine Entertainment newspapers and the ABC, as an “unjustified slur” on the profession.

Mr Butler said he had asked the health department to review the PhD thesis, written by lawyer Margaret Faux and cited in Monday’s media reports, which estimated that $8bn was rorted from Medicare annually.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the figures were ‘extremely high’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“The figure employed by Dr Faux is substantially higher … than any figure employed to date,” he said.

“It does seem extremely high.”

Mr Butler said he understood the AMA’s reaction to the claims, which would mean as many as 30 per cent of medical consults were inappropriately billed.

“There is fraud in the Medicare system unfortunately,” he said.

“There will inevitably be the odd bad apple.”

Mr Butler said 24 cases were before the courts relating to Medicare fraud, while a further 18 cases had been sent to the commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

Dr Margaret Faux estimated as much as $8m had been rorted from the government service annually.

But he said there was strong compliance in the profession and there were “many, many thousands of honest hardworking health professionals who every day deliver hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Medicare services”.

On Monday, AMA president Professor Steve Robson said the report had been “as appalling as it is inaccurate”.

“Doctors will be sickened by today’s reporting which is an undeserved attack on the whole profession based very much on anecdotes and individual cases,” Professor Robson said.

“The AMA works closely with the Department of Health on compliance and we have never seen any concerns or numbers that would support the figures that were reported today.

“We do not tolerate fraud and examples of fraud should be tackled and stamped out – but the figures reported today are grossly inflated.”