General Topics

Payroll Tax – Administrative Controls

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Webinar

Tuesday 12 December 2023, 7:30pm AEDT

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

AGPA Webinar

Payroll Tax – Administrative Controls

Speakers

Paul Copeland, Director, William Buck

Ben Ryan, Senior Associate, Avant Law

 

Victoria, NSW, ACT, Queensland and South Australia are all applying precedents which allow them to charge payroll tax on medical professional fees paid to independent GPs under conventional General Practice structures.

Recognizing this as a major risk many Practices have taken the approach of removing aspects of contracts which may suggest a relationship other than a service relationship between the clinic and a tenant GP.  This may present issues for Practices in achieving clinical coverage during preferred patient hours and in other areas such as clinic accreditation.

The webinar will discuss the implications of contractual administrative controls for payroll tax exposure and the potential to expose clinics to other employment law liabilities.

Book at

https://www.trybooking.com/CNPBI

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

For further information contact the AGPA Secretariat

Speaker Profiles are here

 

                                           

AGPA 2023 AGM

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ACL Acquisition of Healius – ACCC Inquiry

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The Australian pathology industry is dominated by four large companies.  When measured using the number of Approved Collection Centres (ACCs) as a measure of market share three companies dominate the industry: Healius, Sonic and ACL have approximately 80% of the ACCs.

When the smaller share held by 4Cyte is added, the proportion of the market held by these four companies rises to over 90%.

On 23 March 2023  Australian Clinical Labs Ltd (ACL) made an off-market takeover offer for Healius Ltd offering 0.74 ACL shares for every Healius share. The offer period expires 29 September 2023.

For those General Practices with ACCs the maintenance of a competitive market for lease space in Practices is critical. Without a competitive market rents could be expected to decline over time, and the use of tenders processes or other arms-length negotiations to establish a market rent would become very difficult.

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AGPA Webinar: Payroll Tax – Another View

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Webinar

Tuesday 29 August 2023, 7:30pm AEST

7:30 pm Queensland, 7:00 pm SA, 5:30 pm WA

AGPA Webinar

Payroll Tax – Another View

Speakers

Paul Copeland, Director, William Buck

Ben Ryan, Senior Associate, Avant Law

 

State Payroll Tax is threatening to become a major threat to the viability of General Practices in many Australian States.

Victoria, NSW, Queensland and South Australia are all applying precedents which allow them to charge payroll tax on medical professional fees paid to independent GPs under conventional General Practice structures.

Queensland and South Australia have both announced a moratoriums on the application of payroll tax rulings but the outcome at the end of the moratoriums will apparently require PRT to be paid.

Practices are faced with either charging patient levies to cover the tax (with issues for bulk billing), or restructuring so that the tax provisions do not apply. The risks with restructuring are significant with potential changes to financial management practice and to the relationships within the Practice.

The speakers will discuss approaches which reduce PRT exposure risk while maintaining key functionality.

Book at

https://www.trybooking.com/CKRZA

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

For further information contact the AGPA Secretariat

Speaker Profiles are here

 

                                           

Australian General Practice Alliance (AGPA) Raises Concerns Over Government’s Decision on Prescription Exchange Provider Monopoly

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Media Release

Australian General Practice Alliance (AGPA) Raises Concerns Over Government’s Decision on Prescription Exchange Provider Monopoly

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
08/08/2023

The Australian General Practice Alliance (AGPA) maintains the recent decision by the Department of Health and Ageing, which attempts to mandate a single prescription exchange provider for publicly funded prescriptions runs counter to the interests of primary care sector and its patients and is by its design anti-competitive.

AGPA said the move eliminates the healthy competition that existed between MediSecure and Fred IT, two key companies providing prescription delivery services to the community since these services were being designed in 2009.

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APGA at the RACGP Owners Conference

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AGPA participated at the RACGP Practice Owners Conference in Adelaide 20-21 May 2023.

A big thanks to AGPA Directors Dr Craig Richards (NSW) and Dr Richard Barker (QLD) for two days of hard work at the AGPA stand.

 

 

AGPA At Practice Owners Conference- Stand 53

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The AGPA will be present at the upcoming RACGP Practice Owners Conference 20 & 21 May 2023.

A number of Directors will be present so this will be a great opportunity to catch up and discuss the issues that are important to you as a Practice Owner and what the AGPA can do to help.

See you at Stand 53

 

Increased Bulk Billing Incentive Payments are a Welcome Initiative for Regional, Rural & Remote Australia

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MEDIA RELEASE

9 May 2023

INCREASED BULK BILLING INCENTIVE PAYMENTS ARE A WELCOME INITIATIVE FOR REGIONAL, RURAL & REMOTE AUSTRALIA

The increased bulk billing incentive will be a major benefit for primary healthcare in regional, rural & remote Australia and will help retain and attract GPs into those areas. The benefits will be much lower for metro Australians.

A short consultation in remote Australia is now funded at $79.40, but a metro Australian is only worth $60.40. With metro fee rates already at over $90 the opportunity cost for a doctor to bulk bill in metro Australia is approximately $30.

The Australian GP Alliance is pleased that the Commonwealth Government is attempting to increase access to primary healthcare for vulnerable Australians and restructure support for chronic disease management. It is vital that any new scheme does not diminish access of care for the 50% of Australians living with a chronic disease.

The Commonwealth Government must work with States & Territories to stop taxing Commonwealth Medicare patient payments and all medical professional fees. Until this is done the good intent from this budget will be unsuccessful.

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Health Minister’s Speech at Press Club

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On 2 May the Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health gave an address at the Press Club in Canberra.

Some highlights from that address are are below:

 

Minister for Health and Aged Care – Speech – National Press Club – 2 May 2023

 

Media event date: 2 May 2023

Date published: 2 May 2023

Media type:Speech Audience: General public

Selected Comments – Full speech is available here

I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we stand, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

I offer my respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to any First Nations people joining us today.

………

Now it might seem strange to start a speech on the future of Medicare by talking about the past.

But to understand the future of Medicare, you have to go back to its beginning.

So cast your mind back – those of you old enough to remember – to 1984.

Bob Hawke is the Prime Minister and Medicare is in its first year.

The Ford Falcon is Australia’s bestselling car.

“Ghostbusters” is the pinnacle of movie special effects.

Fax machines are in every office.

And in the suburbs of Adelaide a teenager is praying that his mum will buy him a walkman for his 14th birthday.

Medicare was created to solve the health problems of 1984.

In those days … we were younger, on average, and tended not to live as long.

We smoked a lot: 40 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women were regular smokers.

Our health issues were more episodic and acute.

Back then, Medicare was a symbol of modernity.
 
But it didn’t have an easy birth.

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NSW to Progress with Payroll Tax on GP

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2 February 2023 the AGPA wrote to the NSW Premier, Health Minister and Treasurer and their Shadow counterparts.

We expressed our concerns regarding the potential impact of taxing medical professional payments under the payroll tax and the impact that this would have on bulk billing as Practices would need to suspend bulk billing to develop contingency funds, pointed out that because of the way GP is structured it is a tax exceeding 10% on Practice revenue and requested that the State consider amending the payroll tax act to exempt medical professional fees.

Today we have received an […]

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