This week we highlighted the inadequacies in regulation of contracts that allow private health insurers to abuse their market power through deceptive and unfair tactics in contracting with individual doctors.
Our position statement , released on Wednesday, says regulation to limit the massive power differential between private health insurers and doctors has been put in the “too hard basket” by successive governments.
We have been increasingly concerned about the lack of regulation of these contracts, with the absence of regulation impacting patient choice and quality of care, the clinical autonomy of doctors in private practice, private hospital case mix and other professionals involved in the patient’s care.
In a media statement , AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen, said there was nothing in the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 or the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 preventing the top five health insurers, which collectively control more than 80 per cent of the Australian private health insurance market, from abusing their market power in contracting with individual medical practitioners.
We are continuing to call for an independent Private Health System Authority to develop a standard set of terms and conditions for private health insurers’ “no-gap” and “known -gap” contracts with doctors to ensure contracts are transparent and fair to all parties and appropriately indexed to the increasing cost of medical care.
