SWSLHD and Bowral's Health - 40

GPs to prepare for mental health cuts

• By Gemma Collins on  21 October 2011 - 6Minutes

Many bulk-billing GP practices will have to start charging patients for Better Access services, the RACGP says.

With the final report into the Senate inquiry on mental health cuts being delayed, the College has said that the changes to the Better Access general practice mental health item numbers announced in the May budget, are likely to come into effect from November 1. 

Ina  series of likely scenarios (link) the College says it will continue to lobby the government but “practices may require revised practice systems and billings in order to continue delivering high quality patient care”.

College members have come up with a list of different practice scenarios to provide GPs with alternatives models of care for mental health services.

It has given the scenarios of a large practice in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and a small busy private practice in the western suburbs of Sydney that will both no longer be able to afford to continue bulk-billing mental health services through the Better Access program.

They will instead charge a patient co-payment for all the mental health services or refer their patient to public state-based services.

Meanwhile a medium sized private rural general practice in Queensland that employs a practice nurse with mental health skills is planning to use General Practice Management Plans (GPMP) and Team Care Arrangements (TCAs) which will involve the GP and the practice nurse who will coordinate mental health screening and assessment. 

Meanwhile a fourth scenario for a bulk-billing practice that is unable to charge a patient co-payment due to its service charter, is to use the new MBS item 2715 in combination with other appropriate MBS items.

GPs are being told to contact the RACGP Policy & Practice Support Unit for advice (advocacy@racgp.org.au)

Comments

We drew up our new fees at the beginning of October and published them at the practice for patient’s information. Mostly our Gap is $30, but the gap for <40minutes plan is higher. I only realised this week when I received a mailing from Psychologist Association the if a patient has already used 10 sessions this year, they are ineligible for any more session after November 1st.

Milton Doctor | 22 October 2011 at 20:56

SWSLHD and Bowral's Health - 16

Psychiatrists back Better Access cuts

• By Michael Woodhead on  21 September 2011

Two leading psychiatrists have told the government it is doing the right thing by scaling the Better Access scheme for mental health.

Professor Ian Hickie told a recent Senate Inquiry (link) into Mental Health Services that the cuts – which will see GP rebates slashed by half – were needed to “correct the balance” and were “extremely welcome”.

He said the scheme had never been intended to cover all psychological care outside of hospital, but it was now being used for ‘higher need‘ patients who would be better managed through the ATAPS program.

He also applauded the move to cut the number of sessions from ten to six, saying it would allow more people to be treated for shorter periods.

“We have people who should not be in that care system receiving long-term care while many other people are excluded,” he said.

Professor Hickie was backed up by Professor Patrick McGorry who said any patient needing more than 10 sessions with a GP required “a serious re-evaluation and they probably need more skilled psychological care ... probably on a team basis.”

However AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton (link) told the inquiry the AMA opposed cuts to a scheme that was helping more than a million patients access GP mental health services each year, including over 130,000 in disadvantaged areas.