Summary
Date: 28 November 2019
The RACGP has provided a submission to the Department of Health on proposed amendments to two MBS items for sleep studies (12203 and 12250).
The amendments are the outcome of an earlier consultation process where the Department requested feedback on the effectiveness of changes to respiratory function test and sleep study items introduced on 1 November 2018. The RACGP provided a submission to the Department in July 2019, which can be viewed here.
The Department has proposed lowering the STOP-Bang questionnaire score requirement to 3 (from 4) to support access to testing for patients with symptomatic, moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea.
The RACGP is supportive of this change. As noted in the RACGP’s earlier response to the Department, our members have raised concerns that current sleep assessment tools are not effective for supporting patients with conditions that suggest an underlying diagnosis of sleep apnoea.