Co-investment plan to pump $1.5b into local production
In the first major pre-Budget announcement for health, the federal government has released the Medical Science Co-investment Plan, worth $1.5 billion, designed to increase public investment in “high...
View ArticleDocs aren’t well supported in tech uptake
Many primary health networks use Tim Blake, and his company Semantic Consulting, to improve healthcare through better adoption of digital tools. New models of care, enabled by digital health, will be...
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Unleashing allied health is an indemnity headache
If every cloud has a silver lining, the scope of practice review’s may be that it could help keep medical indemnity premiums down. According to the second issues paper from the Unleashing the...
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Good news, bad news on drug shortage front
The TGA has good news for people who have been unable to access the ADHD drug lisdexamfetamine for months, but bad news for those using dispersible fluoxetine. Earlier this week the TGA announced the...
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Why the SA payroll play may work … and why it may not
Earlier this week, practices across South Australia received a letter inviting them to join in a mass rejection of state revenue office assessments of payroll tax eligibility. The letter, which came...
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The trouble with Hospitals in the Home
The RACGP is begging for hospitals to give GPs “a break” when it comes to Hospital in the Home programs, some of which prevent patients from accessing Medicare rebates while still technically...
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Need for bulk-billing docs mightier than AHPRA
In what may be a sign of just how rare bulk-billing doctors have become, a GP in regional Victoria has successfully won a stay against AHPRA mandated education and supervision, in part because he...
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DoHAC warns over ‘possibly non-compliant’ PoC HbA1c billing
The Department of Health and Aged Care has raised concerns with the RACGP over potentially uncompliant Medicare billing of item numbers for HbA1c testing in general practice. In 2021, Medicare...
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‘Serious’ sexual misconduct to be permanently public
Health ministers have agreed to amend the Health Practitioners National Law so that proven allegations of a criminal sexual offence or sexual professional misconduct will permanently remain on a...
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Vic cans new injecting room as synthetic opioids hit streets
Just as signals emerge that Melbourne’s illegal drug supply is being contaminated with potent synthetic opioids, the state government has announced it will not be going ahead with a key harm-reduction...
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Levying a payroll fee ‘may do more harm than good’
An email is circulating among South Australian GPs advising them how to raise their fees to cover payroll tax without incurring extra payroll tax liability – but this is unlikely to be feasible or...
View ArticleDesignated brands protected from drug shortages
Like the weather, house prices and “cozzie livs” (cost of living, not a swimwear revival as I first thought), drug shortages are now part of the conversations you find yourself having in queues. Did...
View ArticleFFS! It’s time to try something different
Several health policy challenges including patient harm, inappropriate care and overservicing recently entered the national discourse, chiefly through a series of Four Corners investigations of...
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Task substitution is no threat to a good GP
As part of educating myself on finance and small business ownership better, I follow several finance “bros”, among them this guy, who recently tweeted this ad from the 90s: Inflation is a given, yet...
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Queensland pharmacy pilot officially takes off
Ten pharmacists in Queensland can now diagnose and prescribe for 17 different conditions under the state’s contentious scope of practice pilot, which has kicked off today. According to Queensland...
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Are practices with 10-20% service fees viable?
Practices offering GPs services fees as low as 20% are not as uncommon as one might imagine, but how are – or are – they sustainable? A quick search of employment marketplaces for GP vacancies by The...
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