Patients’ fees open for all to compare

Patients may finally be able to compare specialist fees and charges before treatment, through a new government website.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt will today release advice from an expert committee and commit to fund and develop its proposed website. Picture: Monique Harmer

Patients may finally be able to compare specialist fees and charges before treatment and know their likely out-of-pocket expenses upfront after the Coalition vowed to strike a deal with health groups for a new government website.

But the pre-election push for greater transparency may also shine a spotlight on the contribution made by Medicare and health insurers to rising medical bills and prompt calls for further reform.

Health Minister Greg Hunt will today release advice from an expert committee, headed by Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy, and commit to fund and develop its proposed website.

“We will collaborate with clinicians and consumers to get the fee website right, with an initial focus on fees for gynaecology, ­obstetrics and cancer services,” Mr Hunt said.

The committee found patients and their GPs would be best served by a website showing individual specialists’ fees for common services, the range of fees by specialty and region, insurance coverage and their regular team members. In its report, delivered to Mr Hunt in November, the committee was “strongly of the view that full or near-full participation was essential”.

Developing the website would likely take more than a year and be subject to a two-year transition period, but the committee also ­acknowledged “the significant challenge of achieving full participation”.

If negotiations fail, the committee suggested the government not force the issue but instead enable the website to show which specialists had declined to be involved.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has yet to declare its position on such a website but continues to campaign for higher rebates.

Like other colleges, RANZCOG has argued a minority of specialists charge exorbitant fees, but its members have seen more expectant mothers shift to the public system as a result.

Royal Australasian College of Surgeons president John Batten was on the committee and yesterday urged all specialists to be ­involved “at least initially until we see how this works”.

Mr Batten said a properly constructed website would not only provide transparency around fees but also demonstrate the complexity of the system and varying billing practices.

“We have had problems with the Medicare Benefits Schedule being frozen for a long time and yet costs of running practices have been going up greater than CPI and that has affected some more than others,” he said.

Professor Murphy recently highlighted “cultural, behaviour issues” that had led to higher fees in NSW and the ACT, and the committee found the drivers of out-of-pocket costs overall to be “complex and multifactorial”.

“These include a perception by a number of medical specialists regarding the adequacy and complexity of Medicare and private health insurance reimbursements,” the committee reported.

Medicare Safety Nets had “also arguably had an inflationary effect on fees charges”, while capping some items had increased costs for patients. Even the proposed website, the committee noted, carried the risk of some specialists increasing fees to match their peers.

The committee found there was “not necessarily any relationship between fees charged and the quality of medical care” and the government will run an education campaign to that effect.