2023: A Year of Change

The famous Benjamin Franklin idiom, ‘nothing is certain except death and taxes’ should undoubtedly be altered to read ‘nothing is certain except death, taxes and change in the Australian healthcare industry’.
 
Looking retrospectively at the year, it’s no wonder practices have felt the pressure with so much change going on.
 
Firstly, in May, the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoH) announced that Fred IT’s eRx Script Exchange (eRx) was engaged as the single provider for the National Prescription Delivery Service.
 
The intention of moving to a single NPDS was to provide streamlined prescription delivery management, and to keep the transfers of prescription information cost-neutral for prescribers and practices, pharmacists, and patients alike into the future.
 
Shortly after, the release of MyMedicare became the hot topic. The voluntary patient registration initiative garnered significant attention as it began its implementation, with key milestones including practice registrations starting from July, patient registration commencing in October, and new Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) funding for registered patients for longer telehealth consultations beginning on 1 November.
 
Furthermore, aged care incentives, chronic disease management, and funding for frequent hospital visits will be restructured from mid-2024 onwards.
 
Also aboard the change-train, was the announcement of higher bulk billing incentives that went on to be introduced on 1 November for Commonwealth concession card holders and patients under 16 years of age. 
 
These incentives can be co-claimed with specific consultation items, including face-to-face general attendance consultations, telehealth consultations (video and telephone), and telehealth consultations for registered patients through MyMedicare.
 
Even with all that action, there’s not much time to catch your breath given that from March 2024, the Australian Immunisation Register will introduce new mandatory reporting requirements to improve the quality of data. These requirements include specifying the vaccine type, route of administration, and batch numbers for selected vaccines when uploading an encounter to the AIR.
 
This information will be crucial for healthcare providers who are both the immunisation and information provider.
 
Change is inevitable. The best thing GPs can do to prepare is to maintain an adaptable mindset and stay resilient.
 
Being left behind could result in real financial and social impacts for yourself and your patients. Stay up to date with communications and most importantly, stay up to date with your software version and data updates.
 
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