Dear Drs. Haikerwal, Preetham, Cain, Kate Carnell, Julia Nesbitt and
Duncan Wood,
The Medicare Australia Web site
http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/providers/programs_services/medicare/electronic-claiming.shtml
tell us, in explaining the benefits of the new Electronic Medicare
claiming system:
"Unpaid accounts
1. The patient’s Medicare card is swiped through your EFTPOS terminal
2. some basic information is entered on the keypad. For most claims
this will be around ten keystrokes, more for specialists
* the claim is automatically encrypted and sent to Medicare,
entitlements are verified and an approval message is sent back to the
terminal
3. a cheque is sent from Medicare Australia to the patient who then
brings it back to the practice."
Have the AMA, AGPN and RACGP pointed out to the Minister of Health the
apparent absurdity of paying however much it has been to develop a new
electronic claiming system that results in a cheque being posted not
even to the doctor but to the patient, and that then has to be
physically taken to a bank to be processed?
As I understand it, this means that the banks are going to be paid 23
cents per electronic transaction to send a claim that results in a
cheque being printed and posted, that then has be taken to ... guess
where? ... a bank, which then charges another fee to process the cheque
that results from the transaction that it or another bank has already
processed.
This sounds like almost a perfect money making scheme for the banks.
The banks must be laughing up their sleeves at their good fortune
resulting from the government's decision to spend our taxes in this way
for their benefit. The banks must be hoping that the public doesn't
become aware of how the government is supporting their industry with our
taxes via Medicare. Similarly that threatened species the postman and
postwoman will be so glad that the Minister of Health is helping to keep
them in a job delivering Medicare cheques, as will the manufacturers of
the motor vehicles that practice staff will be using to take the cheques
to the bank. Petrol companies and other industries and companies whose
products or services are inefficient or environmentally damaging
compared to current technologies, but which are used in this process
will also appreciate the benefits to them of the 'pay doctor' cheque scheme.
--
Oliver Frank, general practitioner
255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens, South Australia 5086
Phone 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 Mobile 0407 181 683
_______________________________________________
Gpcg_talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
