Push for MBS health assessment eligibility for all ages

Press/Media: Expert Comment

Description

It is time for the Federal Government to invest in preventive health, the RACGP has urged, with an expansion of MBS items for the assessments.

Subject

Health Assessments

Preventive Care

Period2 Oct 2024

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitlePush for MBS health assessment eligibility for all ages
    Degree of recognitionNational
    Media name/outletNewsGP
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date2/10/24
    DescriptionIt is time for the Federal Government to invest in preventive health, the RACGP has urged, with an expansion of MBS items for the assessments...
    Professor Mark Morgan, Chair of RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care, told newsGP the shake-up of these assessments is an opportunity for the Federal Government to invest more in preventive health.

    ‘We know that the total health budget spent on prevention is a little less than 2% and multiple authorities recommend an increase in prevention,’ he said.

    ‘Health assessments provide a really useful vehicle here to enable patients to have that planned, proactive and team-based care in general practice.’...

    But Professor Morgan is hopeful that the Government will see this as ‘an investment rather than a cost’.

    ‘If the Federal Budget can be built, and therefore the cost of the Medicare items is funded, then this could start quickly,’ he said.

    ‘GPs already attempt to do opportunistic and sometimes planned preventive care, but they’re often doing so at an unsustainable cost.

    ‘All the rhetoric, all the intentions of what’s said about the plans for the health system, aligns with this investment.’
    Producer/AuthorChelsea Heaney
    URLhttps://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/push-for-mbs-health-assessment-eligibility-for-all
    PersonsMark Morgan