Doctors and Dentists Accused of Medicare Rip-Off

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This is from yesterday's Sunday Mail...

 

What is it about this country that RORTING the TAX PAYER is accepted as normal behaviour.

EPC PLANS

INSULATION OF HOMES

SCHOOL BUILDING PROJECTS

And many other examples are available.

The EPC plan system is a good idea, it has its faults, but abuse of it means the Govt will kill it.

So what will happen to those pts who need this service.

Can they return to the Hospital Service???????

Hardly.

So what will happen to those practices who have a large proportion of EPC plan patients????

Go BROKE as their patients will not pay the full fee and thus will no longer be in receipt of care????

Another complete shambles caused by GREED.

Ho Hum.

Mind you this used to be a British Penal Colony so perhaps it is part of Aussie Culture to cheat and rort and defraud the systems.

A somewhat confused Scot who has been here only 3 and half years.:craig:

David:drinks

 

A similar story appeared in The Sunday Telegraph (NSW). It was worded to make it look like the Allied Health professions involved were rorting the system, when it's the doctors who must write the plans ( and can refuse Medicare permission to check their books if there are any discrepancies!) Maybe they should have pointed out that a doctor gets more for writing the plan than the 5 visits are worth. It also stated that allied health were "generously reimbursed " - hmmm! If it's so good how come some podiatrists won't even do EPC?
Unfortunately it seems to be a trait that the rich get richer (usually by scamming people that need the services/ money the most), and the government turns a blind eye. Don't know that it's intrinsically Australian to be like this, I could give you a list of other nationalities that do the same, but we won't go there...
I heard a rumour last year that EPC's were going to increase to 20 visits/ year - sounds pretty unlikely when the hospital system is falling apart at the seams!

Cheers,
Kara

 

I was treating a patient yesterday - who had all of three toes left, extremely high risk with an active wound.... He was under EPC. Without this plan he would not have come in to my office. I thought of this article, and how they neglected to mention about the thousands of people who really benefit from podiatric care, and without an EPC would not consider podiatry. What about all the people who come on for their annual diabetic foot check under EPC, who wouldn't normally bother?
I think it's a wonderful scheme which doesn't go far enough, and if the government is serious about preventative health care, then this is the way to go....

 

The EPC plan fails this guy desperately.

How does he access the necessary care after he has had his 5 appointments.:deadhorse:

Wait till next year for a new referral.:butcher:

Access his private health care if he has it?

Cough up the full fee if he has it?

You through your sense of public duty do not charge him a fee for any further t/t he needs?igs:

So the EPC plan fails the people it seeks to serve, and is abused by people who have no need of it.

David