The peak body for general practitioners says a major overhaul of the current funding system for GPs must be made to protect the future of Australia’s health.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) today launched its bold new funding model: Vision for general practice and a sustainable healthcare system, which sets the tone for delivering more efficient and sustainable healthcare.
Voluntary patient enrolment, fee-for-service, continuity of care, and coordination support payments to bridge the gap between hospitals and primary healthcare, are all highlighted in the document, which was developed in consultation with more than 1000 GPs, stakeholders and consumer groups.
RACGP President Dr Frank R Jones presented the vision at the opening of GP15, the RACGP’s annual conference, calling on the government to work with the profession and patients to build a robust and healthy Australia.
“The RACGP Vision for general practice and a sustainable health system provides a framework for implementing the medical home in Australia,” Dr Jones said.
“Fee for service works well for any consultation or healthcare service that requires the patient to be in the room with their GP, and is as efficient as it has ever been. In today’s dollars, the cost per Medicare service is less now than it was 20 years ago.
“However, it doesn’t work well for a range of patient services and public health activities with proven benefits that reduce overall cost to the health system.
“There has been a lack of support for chronic disease management, integration of care, prevention, continuity of care, and population health.
“This has led to fragmentation of care, which results in the duplication of patient services and testing, unnecessary care, loss of a coordination, and poorer health outcomes for patients. The consequences are unnecessary hospital presentations and admissions, costing our health system more than $3 billion per year.”
Implementing the medical home as proposed by the RACGP’s vision will increase access, decrease use of inappropriate services (particularly emergency department use and avoidable admissions), increase provision of preventive services, improve patient care and experience, and reduce health system costs for funders.
Key features of the vision include:
- Voluntary patient enrolment: patients can enroll with a specific practice and nominate a preferred GP. This will give patients a medical home and assist general practices to tailor services to their community, while supporting patient choice and competition.
- A comprehensiveness payment to support GPs and general practice teams to operate at their full scope of practice, delivering a broad range of patient services to their communities. More patients treated in the community reduces pressure on emergency departments and hospitals.
- Coordination support payments to bridge the gap between hospitals and primary healthcare. Better coordination and integration will result in improved patient outcomes, further reducing patients presenting to Emergency Departments for care that could have been avoided.
“Almost 85% of Australians see a GP each year yet overall government expenditure on general practice is only 8% of the health budget,” Dr Jones said.
“If implemented, our vision will transform the delivery of healthcare in Australia, through increased quality, access, and efficiency.”