Presidents of both the RACGP and AMA have confirmed that the health department is urgently working on assignment of benefit solutions, but time is running out.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has just nine working days left to come up with a workable solution for assignment of benefit changes, with pressure now increasing from all sides.
From 1 July, all GP practices will be required to obtain and store a signature from each patient recording their consent to be bulk billed.
This has to happen for every single occasion of care which is bulk billed.
Indicating that a patient is unable to sign or that the patient verbally consented to being bulk billed will no longer be options.
GPs who work in aged care and disability care are particularly concerned about the potential impact on their patients who lack the capacity to consent to being bulk billed but may not have a readily available next of kin to sign on their behalf.
RACGP president Dr Michael Wright confirmed media reports that DoHDA was urgently seeking a solution for these scenarios.
“We are in daily contact with the Minister’s office and Department of Health and urgently looking for a workable solution,” he told The Medical Republic.
“With every passing day this is getting more critical and I am expecting an update and progress soon.”
TMR contacted the department for comment and confirmation but did not receive a response before deadline.
GPs are not the only ones putting pressure on DoHDA: on Tuesday, independent MP Dr Monique Ryan also publicly called on the government to find a solution.
“The Government deserves credit for expanding bulk billing, but it can’t invest $11.4 billion in GP access then introduce paperwork that makes it harder for doctors to bulk bill their most vulnerable patients,” she said.
“Aged care residents will find it challenging to sign electronic forms received via SMS link.
“This reform was delayed once already because the original timeline was unworkable. If the government fails to announce a transitional arrangement for residential aged care before 1 July, it risks leaving some of Australia’s most frail people without timely bulk billed GP care.”
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The set of laws coming into effect on 1 July technically allow for patients to sign an “enduring” assignment of benefit, which would mean GPs could collect a patient’s bulk billing consent once and have it apply to subsequent future instances of care.
According to Dr Ryan, this would fix many of the potential issues with the rule change.
Unfortunately the department is still “working to finalise regulations”, and enduring assignment of benefit will not be available until 2027.
“The Government has left a one-year gap with no adequate bridge,” Dr Ryan said.
“It will be small GP practices and vulnerable patients who will fall into that gap.”
Dr Ryan also called on the government to publish a briefing on implementation readiness and to create a targeted exemption or a “formal compliance safe harbour” for practices acting in good faith during the transition period.
