Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The other issue that I would like to ask the minister to consider in terms of MRI licence allocations is one that has been raised with me by other providers in my area. I am interested to know if the government has done or intends to do any analysis of the competitive effects of licence allocations in regions. Obviously I am indicating the anticompetitive effects that happen with this very limited licence allocation process. Whilst I understand the cost implications for governments of giving these things out willy-nilly, it has been raised with me by other scanning providers that the ability to offer MRI scanning has a big impact on your ability to attract staff. People want to be able to access as part of their professional development those diagnostic services, so the one provider who has the licence has an extraordinary advantage over other providers in the area in terms of business competitiveness. I think that is a genuine concern.

I do not know that that is something that would change the allocations policy, but I would certainly encourage the government and the minister to have a look, at this point in the process of allocating licences, at any sort of anticompetitive effects it may be having on other providers in the area. It is clearly something that is being raised with members of parliament. I would suggest that serious concerns are increasing as this becomes not unusual service but in fact a standard component of the range of services that radiology looks to provide in the local area.

Second, I understand that the most recent allocation of licences had a requirement for a bulk-billing component. However, the previously allocated licences do not. The dilemma that we have with licence allocation in Wollongong is that the provider only bulk-bills particular types of oncology patients. It does not bulk-bill, for example, healthcare cardholders in general. This is creating a great deal of distress, particularly amongst pensioners and family people. Indeed, only this week I saw a lady whose daughter had to have a scan once every two weeks as part of  the treatment she was receiving for a cancer related disease, but she did not meet the very limited guidelines this provider has for bulk-billing. That is causing major issues. So I ask whether the guidelines for the allocations have been changed for new licences, whether the requirement to bulk-bill will be maintained for, at least, healthcare cardholders, and whether there is any capacity to review the existing licence holders who are not meeting those requirements.

Again, I would argue that part of the problem is the lack of competition for those providers. Particularly in an area like mine, patients have to get into Sydney—or travel down to Nowra, as the member for Gilmore knows—to get a bulk-billed service. I ask whether there is a view that there should be a review of some of that in-built anticompetitive bad pricing behaviour that was there in the early rounds—which was unsurprising, with a new program and a rollout. Is there the capacity to go back and have a look at those charging practices of the existing licence holders?

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