AGPA Webinar – Non Medicare Income Streams

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Webinar

Tuesday 6 December 2022, 7:30pm AEDT

6:30 pm Queensland, 7:00 pm SA, 4:30 pm WA

AGPA Webinar

Non Medicare Income Streams

Presented by: AGPA

Speakers:

Dr Brenda Murrison, Dr Fiona Raciti, Dr Jared Dart

 

As part of our Practice Sustainability webinar series AGPA has asked members to discuss some of the options they have followed or considered for their Practices.

Declining Government support for primary healthcare via Medicare has impacted on Practice income and in some cases Practice viability.

A common response has been to move Practice billing to mixed or private billing, but some Practices have also taken the opportunity to develop income streams from non-Medicare sources. These options include other government programs, corporate programs and non-Medicare individual medical demand.

It has involved the services of both GPs and allied health professionals.

The focus of the evening will be the presentation of options that some Practices have pursued and the approach required to achieve beneficial outcomes for Practice income.

The intention is that you will be able to ask the panel questions and contribute your own experience.

https://www.trybooking.com/CEPCN

Places will be limited, preference will be given to AGPA members.

For further information contact the AGPA Secretariat

That 7:30 Report

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In mid October the ABC 7:30 Report ran an article suggesting very high levels of  “leakage” from Medicare. The ABC news site article of 17 October states:

Doctors are abusing the $28 billion Medicare system, at times putting patients at risk, billing dead people and falsifying patient records, all to boost profits.

A joint investigation by ABC’s 7.30 program, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has uncovered flaws in Medicare’s systems that make it easy to rort and almost impossible to detect fraud, incorrect payments and errors.

The leakage is estimated to represent nearly 30 per cent of Medicare’s annual budget, or about $8 billion a year.

Unsurprisingly the reaction from GPs was one of outrage and denial.

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Practice Principals are a bit like Ducks

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GP practice owners are a bit like ducks, says Dr Jared Dart,  a GP Practice Owner and director of the Australian General Practice Alliance (AGPA) in an interview with Francis Wilkins of Medical Republic.

“They look like they’re floating, but under the surface they’re paddling fiercely,” he said in the interview . “And the biggest problem is practice principals have nowhere to go. A GP can retrain or go on sick leave, but principals only have one option: to sell, and unfortunately, many are doing just that.”

Inflation is now one of the toughest challenges facing owners. “Medical inflation over the past two years has been particularly high,” says Dr Dart. “Our costs are at least 10% higher in our practice, and that’s across the board – from electricity, wages and consumables to cleaning and rent.”

“Add into the mix things like payroll tax, which could bankrupt a practice principal, and you can understand why the stress is significant.”

The full article and podcast are available here

Queensland Joins the Payroll Tax of GP

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Following the precedents set in Victoria and NSW it is now appears  that the Queensland State Revenue office has  commenced levying retrospective payroll taxes on GP Practices and that medicare and professional fees paid to independent  GPs are considered to be be payments to “employees” for the purpose of determining payroll tax liability.

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