Documents reveal a sustained flow of data, policy proposals, and media material between one of Australia’s largest general practice operators and health minister Mark Butler’s office on urgent care clinics and bulk billing.
A senior advisor to federal health minister Mark Butler has asked major general practice operator ForHealth for help on how to “combat” an argument challenging the impact of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics on hospital emergency departments.
The exchange was among almost 40 pages of correspondence between ForHealth and the minister’s office released by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing under Freedom of Information laws.
The documents showed ForHealth repeatedly supplied the office with data and analysis on urgent care clinics and bulk billing, proposed policy, and workforce changes and offered material that could be used to respond to criticism of government policy.
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In March 2025, ForHealth chief executive Andrew Cohen sent the office what he described as a “top-line analysis of UCC impacts”, examining emergency department trends in South Australia and Victoria.
Mr Cohen argued data being used by others did not correctly account for timing, population growth, and changing health needs and offered to extend ForHealth’s analysis to other states and sites.
A primary care and workforce advisor in Mr Butler’s office responded that the analysis was “very interesting”, before asking how the government could best demonstrate the impact of UCCs when lower-acuity emergency presentations were falling nationally.
“Do you have any thoughts on how to best demonstrate the impact of UCCs, given cat 4/5s are down by ~10% across the country and cat 1-3s are up by ~10% across the country,” the advisor wrote.
“That is, how to combat a potential argument that the change is happening across the country, including in areas without a UCC?”
In another exchange in August 2024, ForHealth told the minister’s office it was concerned about “a growing use of misleading information circulating on Urgent Care”.
“We thought it would be helpful for the team and Minister to be armed with the below facts – we can help expand on these or answer any questions with our dataset,” the company said.
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Bulk billing media
The correspondence also showed the minister’s office working directly with ForHealth on media material promoting the impact of the government’s tripled bulk-billing incentive.
In November 2023, a staffer in Mr Butler’s office told Mr Cohen the office was preparing background information and quotes for journalists about the early impact of the policy.
The staffer had drafted material incorporating ForHealth data and quotes and asked Mr Cohen to review the language, quotes, and detail, telling him: “Feel free to tweak or change.”
The draft said bulk billing had risen five percentage points across 20 ForHealth practices which had previously recorded lower bulk-billing rates, from 67% of visits in September to 71% after the higher Medicare payments began in November.
After discussions and changes, the ministerial office told Mr Cohen it would “drop to media on Sunday for Monday publication” and would provide his mobile number to journalists who wanted to check the quotes.
Days later, further ForHealth data was sent to the office as “welcome feedback for the Minister on the impact of the tripling, and another useful datapoint”.
Policy proposals
The relationship extended beyond media and data.
In January 2024 Mr Cohen proposed using senior emergency department registrars to address workforce shortages at regional UCCs, including a possible exemption from section 19AA of the Health Insurance Act to allow eligible hospital doctors to bill Medicare while working in the clinics.
In April 2025, Mr Cohen sent the minister’s office a copy of ForHealth’s “UCC Workforce thoughts”, saying the company was also engaging with the department in parallel.
The month before, following the federal budget, he congratulated the government on “such a meaningful budget for our sector”, saying: “It will transform bulk billing.”
He attached ForHealth’s early proposal for how the new 12.5% bulk-billing loading could operate.
The correspondence continued into 2026.
In March, ForHealth sent the minister’s office a paper it had developed with several Primary Health Networks, outlining options for urgent care workforce reform, which it said had already been shared with the department.
It also flagged further work on GP workforce problems in complex urban areas, including Western Sydney.
‘Frontline insights’
Asked by The Medical Republic about the correspondence, a government spokesperson said the minister’s office routinely consulted stakeholders.
“The Minister’s Office engages regularly with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure government policy and priorities are informed in consultation with sectors and communities,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Cohen also defended ForHealth’s engagement with government.
“ForHealth is focused on accessible, high-quality care, predominantly in vulnerable communities. We are passionate about Medicare bulk billing and Urgent Care Clinics, and the positive impact policy changes are having,” he told TMR.
“ForHealth, like other sector stakeholders, engages appropriately with Government and the Department to share frontline insights and raise the profile of primary care access.”
Mr Cohen said feedback from healthcare workers, providers, peak bodies, and other stakeholders was important for governments to test policy and identify emerging issues.
“We commend the time Government spends in clinics nationwide, including ours, to meet clinicians and improve services for patients,” he said.
Read the FOI documents here.
