No longer Bulk-Billing Doctor

You are correct

DVA schedule fees are way below market price. What I mean marker price is my clinic price, what I would charge a private patient.

I will prefer a private patient than a DVA patient
If I have an empty slot, I will prefer a DVA patient to a Medicare patient.

If I can't find a dva patient, I will bulkbill.

But when I am actually seeing a patient, I won't differentiate my practice quality. If that make sense to you?

Of course, there is also another business mode, a money grabbing one, where a practitioner see a Medicare patient every 5 minutes, providing ****test service you can ever imagine, and claiming $$ from Medicare.

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Originally Posted by bob10

This may be of interest. Medicare bulk billing fees have been frozen for some time, as have DVA payments for gold and white cards. Some high end specialists have been refusing to see veterans on gold and white cards, purely because DVA are not paying what the DR's say are market rates. Part of the correspondence to and fro contains this snippet of interest to medicare members. This letter was written in 2018, I believe.

"

In two lengthy paragraphs, Mr Chester explains to Ms Sudmalis that [and I paraphrase] indexation of GP bulk-billing fees under Medicare, which had also been frozen in the past, were unfrozen on 1 July last year, standard GP and specialist fees were unfrozen on 1 July this year and specialist and specialist procedures would be unfrozen on 1 July next year." I have no idea of the new rates.

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Originally Posted by martnH

You are correct

DVA schedule fees are way below market price. What I mean marker price is my clinic price, what I would charge a private patient.

I will prefer a private patient than a DVA patient
If I have an empty slot, I will prefer a DVA patient to a Medicare patient.

If I can't find a dva patient, I will bulkbill.

But when I am actually seeing a patient, I won't differentiate my practice quality. If that make sense to you?

Of course, there is also another business mode, a money grabbing one, where a practitioner see a Medicare patient every 5 minutes, providing ****test service you can ever imagine, and claiming $$ from Medicare.

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Totally makes sense to me. And thank you for looking after DVA patients. Believe me, we thank you.

I've just had a biopsy done on a small cancerous lesion on my right ear.... cost $259. Gap around $130. The necessary follow-up excision according to the dermatologist would be a 25 minute procedure and there'd be a "small" gap.
Quote received shows a total cost of 620 bucks and a gap of $389! So much for a small gap.
Not bad money for less than 30 minutes in total.
He won't be getting the job as I can get it done under the health system.
That's the second dermatologist I've seen over the years and both were much the same..... couldn't wait to get you out of the chair and get another victim in. And the first one missed what this bloke saw (after I pointed it out to him) and cut out!
No complaints at all about treatment under bulk billing doctors mostly but have just changed to a new one as the bloke I saw for many years just seemed to stop listening.
AlanH.

I ended up with a bulk billing clinic after my GP moved in with them (and later retired). I can't really complain, except that they don't do appointments, and you often have to wait a couple of hours.

But to give some examples of "bulkbill " service. I saw my GP about bleeding on top of my ear - was referred immediately to a skin clinic next door, who did a biopsy the same day (even though he was sure it was benign). This was diagnosed as melanoma, and I was referred to the Melanoma Institute in Sydney, and operated on within a couple of weeks. (helped that I had private insurance) I am still going, two of my near neighbours, diagnosed with melanoma about the same time, but initially treated by non-bulk billing GPs, are not.

Second example - I presented with a lesion on my leg, GP prescribed antibiotics, come back next week if not well. It wasn't, so I came back. "I think I had better have one of my colleagues look at that!". Colleague, a GP who specialises in skin cancers was able to fit me in an hour later, diagnosed it as a skin cancer (can't remember the type, but fairly benign), and removed it with about two square inches of skin. The pathology confirmed the diagnosis. (All bulkbilled)

A third example was an abdominal lump that was correctly diagnosed as a hernia at the first presentation, referred to a competent surgeon and operated on (so far so good after about three years) with a $0 gap on private hospital, although the initial consultation was not bulkbilled.

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Originally Posted by ATH

I've just had a biopsy done on a small cancerous lesion on my right ear.... cost $259. Gap around $130. The necessary follow-up excision according to the dermatologist would be a 25 minute procedure and there'd be a "small" gap.
Quote received shows a total cost of 620 bucks and a gap of $389! So much for a small gap.
Not bad money for less than 30 minutes in total.
He won't be getting the job as I can get it done under the health system.
That's the second dermatologist I've seen over the years and both were much the same..... couldn't wait to get you out of the chair and get another victim in. And the first one missed what this bloke saw (after I pointed it out to him) and cut out!
No complaints at all about treatment under bulk billing doctors mostly but have just changed to a new one as the bloke I saw for many years just seemed to stop listening.
AlanH.

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A school mate was a GP for many years, now long retired. He inherited extremely well and hung up his stethoscope at age 47 He once commented that if he had his time over as a newly minted physician he would become a dermatologist. Quote "The patients never get better, never die, never get you out of bed at 2.00 am."

I had a L3 melanoma cut off my beer gut some 30 years ago. GP cut out what could be seen and sent it off for testing. When the answer came back he rang the Cook who because I was on the road (pre mobiles) waited up for me to get home in the early hours.
I knew something was wrong when I saw the lights on when I got home.
End result was a large piece of gut cut out through the inner stomach wall and stitches, lots of them on both the inside and out. Horrible bit here.... the surgeon who has since retired under a cloud decided to do it in his rooms, laid me out on the bench, local anaesthetic all around where he intended to cut, waited a few minutes then stabbed me with the scalpel.
And I felt the bloody thing go in. :( "Oh" I shouted and he quickly said to the nurse "Quick, hypnovax" or something similar and she gave him a hypodermic which he shoved straight in my arm and off to sleep I went.
He apologised afterwards and admitted it should have been done under a full anaesthetic .....
Last time I had any contact with him he was sweating really bad and that was in his airconned rooms. There was something definitely wrong with him.
Anyway, the worst part (other than feeling the knife go in that is) was the 10 day wait for the results of the lab who had to check each cell to ensure there were no cancer cells on the outside.
I'm still here, it cost a bit but can't remember the details, so the surgeon whose motto was apparently "Cut long, cut deep" did the right thing even if he was out of line on doing it in his rooms.
I've had a few more ops. since then but didn't feel a thing. :)
AlanH.

PS. Surgeon has been up before the medical people at some time for incomplete notes when someone died under his knife.... :(

I have had the pleasure of being under the knife, a few times. Every one from my GP, to the surgeon , were top shelf. And only because I have a DVA gold card. My recently departed mother , also a gold card War widow, did not have such a happy journey. Long story short, my loving sister, with power of attorney and all that, when Mum went into a bad place, allowed her to go to a public hospital, initials PC. Here she was in a room with two men, one women. Old school mum refused to go to the shower, in front of the men. I took my sister to the local sub branch advocate, who schooled her on the benefits of the gold card, and schooled DVA on what was happening. Result? Mum went into Holy Spirit hospital, had a room on her own, and was treated like royalty. Do I blame the Public hospital? No way. All the staff did the best they could, they were understaffed and over worked. They did the best they could. Poor old Mum died in Hospital, almost 12months ago, and you know what? the nurses cried. If Mum had to go, I couldn't think of a more loving place for her to die.