Shock increase in cost of seeing a GP as bulk billing returns for some on November 1

With Aussies facing a $100-fee to see a GP from next month, one Townsville doctor will be making a change to help patients beat the new cost.

Exclusive: Australians will next month be charged more than $100 for a standard non bulk billed GP appointment, as doctors’ fees rise for the third time this year.

The hip pocket hit comes after the Australian Medical Association (AMA) recommended doctors raise their fees to cope with galloping practice costs.

And while the Medicare rebate will rise for the second in five months, it is by a measly 20 cents, which will have little impact.

In some better news, however, more doctors are likely to bulk bill pensioners and welfare recipients and children aged under 16 when the government triples the bulk billing incentive it pays doctors on November 1.

Doctors in city areas will be paid $62.05 when they bulk bill pensioners and children while those in the bush will receive $81.10 when they bulk bill the same patients.

This is expected to benefit more than 11 million Australians.

Dr Danielle McMullen is considering re-introducing bulk billing when incentives are tripled in November. Picture: Jonathan Ng

AMA GP spokesperson Dr Danielle McMullen said her practice in Townsville, Queensland had stopped bulk billing patients as rising costs outstripped the Medicare rebate.

But because of this change, she will likely reoffer it again from November.

“The triple billing incentive is more than the discounted fee we were charging vulnerable patients and so, it’s every individual doctor’s decision, but the plan is to go back to bulk billing those vulnerable patients, which hopefully makes a real difference to the community,” she said.

However Dr Mukesh Hairkerwal, whose Melbourne surgery had stopped bulk billing most patients except concession card holders, is unlikely to return to the practice because — even with the incentive — it did not make financial sense.

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal explains why it’s unlikely he will go back to bulk billing. Picture Aaron Francis/The Australian

The bulk billing rate among GPs plunged from 88.3 per cent to 80.2 per cent in the year to July as many were unable to meet the costs of running a practice when they relied on the $41 Medicare rebate they get when they bulk bill a patient.

For the first time from November 1, GPs will also be able to bill Medicare for consultations that go for more than one hour.

And the government will provide a Medicare rebate for genetic testing for couples already pregnant or planning a pregnancy to check whether their offspring are at risk of cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and fragile X syndrome.

Health Minister Mark Butler pointed the finger at the previous governments.

“Peter Dutton froze the Medicare rebate when he was the Health Minister almost 10 years ago. A freeze that remained in place for six long years and that led to a very substantial decline in bulk billing in general practice,” he said.

The minister said the latest rises deliver more in “a single year than the former government did in seven years”.

The Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, who blames other governments for changes to the Medicare rebate. Picture: NCA NewsWIRE / Emma Brasier

Every year the AMA issues a list of recommended fees for doctors that is indexed to inflation and News Corp has learned that from November 1 the fee for a standard GP consultation will rise to $102.

The Medicare rebate for this type of consultation will be $40.40 leaving patients, leaving a gap fee of $60.60.

“Even government realised that the costs facing medical practices had have grown significantly over the past few years in particular,” Dr McMullen said.

The November fee rise is the third increase in doctor’s fees recommended by the AMA this year.

The AMA made two unusual under-the-radar fee hikes in March and again in July in response to soaring business costs faced by doctors as inflation took off.

In March, the recommended fee rose from $89 to $90 and in July it rose to $98.

The total increase in AMA fees since November last year will be 5.58 per cent which is below the official inflation rate of 6 per cent.

Research by the Melbourne University Professor Anthony Scott found the profitability of GP businesses fell by 1.9 per cent between 2018–19 and 2019–20 as they adapted to Covid by implementing infection control policies, changing appointment systems and purchasing personal protective equipment.

“It won’t be unfamiliar to the general punter that the cost of living has increased and that your medical practices face those same cost increases,” Dr McMullen said.

Specialists fees will also rise on November 1.

The AMA’s recommended AMA fee for a specialist was $194 in November last year and it will rise to $205.

The AMA’s fee for an initial consultation with a consultant physician — specialists who perform more cognitively complex work and who do fewer operations — will rise from $365 in November last year to $390 this year.

Originally published as Shock increase in cost of seeing a GP as bulk billing returns for some on November 1