AGPA continues to lobby with news media and at the political level to bring issues of importance to General Practices into the spotlight.
Two recent examples from Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, foundation member and Deputy Chair, on The Project 29 January and in a special ABC report (Youtube) from Bridget Rollason
The imposition of payroll tax on medical professional fees is in reality a tax on Practice revenues.
In 2020 a case in the Victorian Court of Appeal confirmed the right for the Victorian State Revenue Office to charge payroll tax on payments made to medical professionals. The payroll tax appears to be payable regardless of the status of the medical professional being an independent contractor or an employee.
Since that precedent both NSW and Queensland have also been imposing payroll tax on General Practices apparently where they consider that the behavior of the Practice is more akin to an employer […]
The impact of under funding of Medicare, and GP shortages are starting to seriously impact on the cost of patient access to GP services.
GP bulk billing rates have declined sharply in all states over the last five quarters. Falling from just under 90% in the 2021 September quarter to 83.5% in the 2022 September quarter, rates have declined over 6% nationally but in in the ACT and the NT this decline exceeds 10%.
The ACT has the lowest rate of bulk billing at just over 61%.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
General Practice is on the edge of a cliff and has been put there by the actions of Successive Governments.
There are three key components to a high quality primary healthcare system
Most GPs work in Principal led […]
Transition to Private Billing
Presented by: AGPA
Speakers:
Dr Trish Baker, Dr Bernard Shiu, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, and Dr Richard Barker
Tuesday 9 August 2022
Since 2010 health costs have increased at about 5% per year. MBS funding has increased by about 0.5%. This has put significant pressure on Practice viability.
Many Practices that were traditionally bulk billing or mixed billing Practices have started or are […]
The candidates:
Dr Julian Fidge
Dr Charlotte Hespe
Dr Nicole Higgins
Dr Chris Irwin
Professor Brad Murphy
Dr Chris Ogonowski
Dr Kate Wylie
Primary health care in Australia is led by Practice Principals who work in the Practices they own, providing clinical leadership and facilities to deliver a high quality, community based, primary healthcare […]