While not the initial target of new legislation on specialist fee visibility, the health minister has flagged future plans for GPs and bulk billing.
Health minister Mark Butler has hinted at even more future plans for the Medical Costs Finder, specifically mentioning in parliament that GP fees and bulk billing rates could one day be published on the government site.
Schedule 1 of the Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026 allows the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to publish certain information about professional services provided by or on behalf of a medical practitioner.
Information can include the extent of that practitioner’s bulk billing, the fees charged for specific services and the hospital or clinic locations where that clinician provides services.
The legislation doesn’t necessarily affect the type of information that is collected, but it does give the department the right to publish it.
If the legislation goes through, it is expected that detailed information on the fees that individual practitioners charge will be published on the Medical Costs Finder website.
Discussion around the bill has focussed specifically on private non-GP specialist fees, but the bill itself technically applies to all medical practitioners.
“While the focus is on the charging practices of specialists, the department may also publish information about GPs and other medical practitioners and their charging practices,” the bill reads.
“GPs would be particularly relevant to publish as they are often the first step of a patient journey for specialist treatment.”
Explanatory notes attached to the bill expressly said the proposed amendments would cover the publication of bulk billing rates by GPs and other medical practitioners and that the Medical Costs Finder publishes fee information for common GP telehealth items.
Speaking at the bill’s second reading in the House of Representatives last week, Mr Butler said it was “unjustifiable” to require patients to commit to a medical treatment before having full knowledge of the costs involved.
“An increasing number of Australians are not taking up referrals from their general practitioner to see a specialist due to cost,” he said.
“In 2024-25, 8.6% of people delayed or missed specialist care – that’s over 800,000 people – because of cost. The most common cause of out-of-pocket costs is medical specialist fees.”
Mr Butler has hinted numerous times that he will consider further action to reign in non-GP specialist fees.
In an interview with ABC Radio late last year, he referenced section 51 xxiiiA of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, which expressly forbids governments from making laws about medical services in such a way that it would amount to civil conscription.
“I’ve … said that we’re going to look at other options to potentially control fees,” Mr Butler said, after outlining the constitutional restrictions.
“I got the doctors’ groups in along with patient groups and some other stakeholders like the AMA and others into a … full day roundtable in parliament several weeks ago.
“I said to them, look, from my point of view, all options were on the table.”
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In comments to The Australian this week, he seemingly confirmed that a constitutional challenge was on the table.
“I know there’s a lot of interest in seeing whether we can maybe test the constitutional boundaries of policy options, and I imagine that will be among the advice that I receive,” Mr Butler told The Australian.
“In my mind, all options are on the table. We’re not at the point yet of detailed consideration of options, but I have tasked the department with really starting to put together a pretty comprehensive suite of options for us to consider.”
