The SMH has reported, "Medical specialists who charge exorbitant fees should be "named and shamed" in a bid to rein in excessive charging, according to a former advisor to Tony Abbott...Mr Barnes said while the bulk of specialists behaved reasonably, "a few bad apples" charged excessive fees. He presented data from one private health insurer showing examples of what he believes is exorbitant charging by specialists, including a case where the privately insured patient faced an out-of-pocket cost of more than $21,000 for neurosurgery, after the surgeon charged more than three times the Medicare fee...The data showed some specialists were charging more than 10 times the Medicare fee for procedures including plastic and reconstructive surgery...Between 2007 and 2013, out-of-pocket costs for operations increased by more than 25 per cent in real terms, more than any other category of service covered by Medicare...Among a number of proposals to tackle the issue, Mr Barnes suggested health ministers publish a quarterly "list of shame" identifying the specialists charging the highest fees, and require the Australian Medical Association to publish the schedule of fees it recommends its members charge. He also said the Extended Medicare Safety Net, which reimburses patients for 80 per cent of their out-of-pocket expenses once they have spent $2000 in a calendar year, should be abolished, because it was providing an incentive for some practitioners to charge higher fees so that their patient reached the threshold to qualify for relief."
Read the full article here.
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