AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen provides members with the latest from the national AMA.
Happy Friday!
I hope those of you juggling the back-to-school chaos are managing ok, and there weren't too many squashed bananas in school bags left undiscovered for months…
This week brought me a brief sense of relief with the hospital funding agreement finally being signed. Calling it a reform agreement is a bit of a misnomer; there is not much reformative about it. Nevertheless, a no-deal last week would have been disastrous and left our public hospitals without any funding certainty from July.
So, a brief sigh of relief. But only long enough to reset and keep up the fight. No amount of funding alone will turn around our hospital logjam overnight.
Although an agreement was better than no agreement, our own modelling suggests that the agreement will not be enough to stop the decline in hospital performance. The additional funding will make a difference, but it is unlikely to reach the 45 per cent of total costs by 2030 that the AMA has been calling for on behalf of our doctors and patients.
Costs are rising, our population is growing and getting older, and care is getting more complex.
We've been campaigning about this for five years and I don't see us letting up anytime federal government to account in making sure that money is put to good use to actually clear the hospital logjam.
On the private health side, this week we shone a light on insurer contracting with doctors. Managing multiple contracts is burdensome, and the process is opaque to patients - including how it may be costing them more!
With over 97 per cent of procedures performed at no or known-gap rates, doctors are doing their very best to contain out-of-pocket costs for patients. But when just $1 extra on your fee could lead to the patient's insurer contribution plummeting, that's not fair. And having to balance different fees for the same procedure across different insurers and hospitals is nonsensical. Aside from the financials, we are concerned about the lack of regulation to protect clinical autonomy. Clinical decisions should be between a doctor and patient, not based on an arbitrary insurance approval. We continue to call for a private health system authority to oversee design and fit-for-purpose regulation.
Of course, with all this complexity, an easy scapegoat is often blaming doctors' fees. But blaming doctors for an underfunded system is not ok. We will continue to stand up for doctors to charge a fair and reasonable fee for our services. We are all for more transparency and informed consent, but that needs to include how Medicare and insurers have reduced their contribution towards the cost of delivering high-quality care.
I also had the opportunity to catch up this week with Ageing Australia. With an ageing population, who have more comparability, particularly conditions like dementia, we really need a fundamental rethink about how we are going to meet their care needs into the future.
I really look forward to ongoing work and how doctors can do our part to design a system fit for the future
Until next week, take care!
