Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker, Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

The bill simplifies Medicare administrative processes for recognition as a specialist general practitioner for Medicare purposes under the Health Insurance Act 1973. It would align Medicare eligibility for GPs with the requirements of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, otherwise known as NRAS. The NRAS commenced in 2010 and for the first time provided a nationally consistent process of regulation for 16 health professions, including GPs. The NRAS established the Medical Board of Australia, otherwise known as the MBA, which is responsible for standards for the medical profession, including specialist registration, and setting standards for mandatory continuing professional development. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency—AHPRA—provides operational support for the MBA and holds the most up-to-date and accurate data source for the registration status of GPs. Services Australia will automatically update GPs' Medicare access based on regular data provided by AHPRA. This will simplify processes for GP Medicare recognition.

This bill will update the definition of a GP in the Health Insurance Act 1973 to align with national registration arrangements. Transitional and grandfathering provisions to be made in the Health Insurance Regulations 2018 will ensure that medical practitioners who are currently eligible for these higher GP rebates will continue to maintain this eligibility.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine are the peak professional bodies for general practice and, together with the MBA, are responsible for ensuring quality in general practice in Australia. Every three years the RACGP and ACRRM advise Services Australia that GPs are compliant with the CPD requirements to maintain patient access to higher Medicare rebates. This amendment will remove this duplicative reporting of CPD to Medicare. Extensive consultation with RACGP, ACCRM, the Australian Medical Association, AHPRA and the MBA has involved careful consideration to ensure that currently eligible medical practitioners who are practising as GPs will continue to be eligible for higher rebates with minimal administrative requirements to be completed.

Schedule 2 of this bill removes references to 'repeal legislation' and replaces it with the reference to the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. The bill will also ensure that activities declared on or after 1 July 2009 are taken to have been valid declarations. Key stakeholders have been consulted as part of the drafting of the bill and support these streamlined processes. I would like to extend my thanks to the professional groups who engaged with the proposals in this bill, and I thank the members for their contributions to debate the bill.

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