Pain management groups are welcoming private health insurance amendment rules tabled in this session of Parliament.
The new rules will see simpler categorisation of basic, bronze, silver and gold across health care insurance policies, increasing transparency for consumers.
The new rules introduced into Parliament have also addressed many of the concerns raised by Painaustralia and its founding members the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) and the Australian Pain Society (APS) last month around the proposed creation of a clinical category for chronic pain management. The new rules ensure that pain management will be a minimum requirement for bronze, silver and gold categories. This will ensure that people will continue to have access to all of the pain management treatments available at this time.
"We welcome the new rules and would like to thank Minister Greg Hunt and his office and department for working collaboratively with the pain sector in attempting to resolve our concerns," said Painaustralia CEO Carol Bennett.
"We have been presented with a much-improved proposal that will see a range of pain management options as a minimum requirement available in every category. This is so important to the one-in-five Australians who live with pain conditions ," Dean of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Dr Meredith Craigie said.
President-Elect of the Australian Pain Society, Anne Burke said, "We look forward to working further with the Government to ensure that multidisciplinary care is also an integral part of general treatment provided under private health insurance and enabling better access to pain management in the public system."
"Our new National Strategic Action Plan outlines the options for action to address the growing burden of pain conditions in our community and we urge the government to adopt and fund these activities as a matter of priority, " Ms Bennett concluded.
