Almost one week on from what was meant to be the go-live date, doctors still have questions about assignment of benefit changes.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has clarified that, while only GPs can create an enduring assignment of benefit agreement with a patient, the new verbal consent arrangements extend to all providers.
This is one of the latest additions to the DoHDA’s Medicare Benefits for Bulk Billing – Frequently Asked Questions fact sheet, which has now been updated several times.
In fact, despite the changes (and the changes to the changes) having gone live on Wednesday last week, the DoHDA said it would “continue to update guidance and FAQs” and is “exploring further options to reduce administrative burden while maintaining the integrity of Medicare”.
It has also reiterated that it will be taking a “risk-based approach” to compliance and will be prioritising prevention and education while practitioners adjust to the new rules.
“The Government’s intent is that these reforms do not affect patients’ access to timely bulk billed care,” the FAQ document updated on 6 July read.
Another recent addition is how verbal consent can be captured in an aged care setting.
“Where a patient’s agreement cannot be obtained physically or electronically, a medical professional may obtain verbal agreement,” the FAQ reads.
“Before doing so, they must explain how the assignment of benefit agreement will be completed and confirm that the patient agrees to assign their Medicare benefit.
“If the patient agrees, the medical professional should enter ‘assignor verbally agreed’ in the assignor signature field and provide the completed agreement to the patient electronically.”
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It also confirmed that, even though the assignment itself was verbal, doctors will be required to keep a copy of this document for two years, as per the new regulations.
“The proposed regulatory amendments will not change this record-keeping requirement,” the DoHDA writes.
“The Department will use the 12-month transition period to explore further legislative and regulatory options to reduce administrative burden on practitioners and patients while maintaining the integrity of Medicare.”
Some GPs are unsatisfied with the answers DoHDA has given.
Dr Henry Konopnicki, a GP with special interest in aged care, tells The Medical Republic he has reservations about collecting verbal agreement for enduring assignment of benefit – even with the DoHDA FAQ reading that verbal assignment of benefit is sufficient “for all bulk-billed patients, in all settings, (not limited to General Practice)” – because this is not reflected in PRODA.
“[The department] said, ‘Yep, okay, enduring [assignment of benefit] will come as of the first of July, and everything can be verbal’ – but if you do billing via PRODA, that doesn’t reflect that,” he says.
“It’s really contradictory. At the moment, the affirmation boxes you’re ticking are incorrect. You can’t click ‘is this enduring?’”
“… Once you’ve ticked that you should never be asked again about the post [consult assignment of benefits], because you don’t need to do the post [assignment] notification, it’s okay for 12 months.
“So, what I’m saying is, are they incompetent? We’re paying these public servants hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they can’t go in and change something within a week. It’s ridiculous.
“At the moment, they’re putting GPs at risk because what [they are] affirming is incorrect.”
