The change of policy - which follows months of campaigning by doctors' groups on the issue - means GPs will be allowed to add the extra minutes spent on the electronic records to the length of a consultation, and choose the Medicare rebate that corresponds to the total time taken.
Previously, federal health officials had insisted GPs would only be able to claim the more lucrative rebates for the lengthier consultations if the patients' health problems met the criteria for clinical complexity.
In a further concession, announced by Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek in a speech to the Australian Medical Association's annual Parliamentary Dinner in Canberra on Wednesday night, the federal government will also delay the introduction of new GP incentive program requirements, under which doctors stood to lose funding worth tens of thousands of dollars per year if they were not participating in the electronic health records scheme.
That deadline has been pushed back from February to May next year, after medical groups told Ms Plibersek there was no chance most GPs would be able to comply in time.
The backdown is a further embarrassment in the rollout of the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) scheme, which has so far signed up just 7115 patients - leaving a dizzying number still to recruit by next July, by which time the federal health department originally envisaged some 500,000 would be enrolled.
Ms Plibersek said the government had made the changes "in response to strong representation from GPs", who have repeatedly pointed out they cannot sign up because the necessary software is not yet available, and will require time to install once it is.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Adam Cresswell
Quelle/Source: The Australian - National Affairs, 24.08.2012
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