Summary
Date: 22 March 2019
The RACGP has provided feedback to the Vascular Clinical Committee of the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review regarding their draft report. The submission responds to five recommendations made in the report that might affect general practice. It includes the following comments.
- New restrictions on some items to ‘specialist’ referral are too broad in their use only of the term ‘specialist’ to restrict access. Rather than rely on the nature of the referring doctor, item descriptors should describe the circumstances in which they can be accessed.
- Any Medical Services Advisory Committee applications made for magnetic resonance angiography items for investigation of the lower limb should aim to reduce barriers to patients by allowing general practitioners to refer for these examinations in eligible patients.