Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The ALP's position on the Health Insurance Amendment (General Practitioners and Quality Assurance) Bill 2020 is that GPs are eligible for higher Medicare rebates if they are fellows of the GP colleges and meet the ongoing continuing professional development requirements. The current system for determining eligibility for those higher rebates is administered by Services Australia and duplicates the separate requirements of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. This bill removes the requirement for eligible GPs to register with Services Australia and instead ties eligibility for higher Medicare rebates to the existing scheme. This is a sensible change and Labor will support this bill.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to speak on this, the Health Insurance Amendment (General Practitioners and Quality Assurance) Bill 2020, and indeed I do thank Senator Kitching and the opposition for their contribution to debate on this. In summing up debate, I'd like to start by saying that the bill simplifies Medicare administrative processes for recognition as a specialist general practitioner, or a GP, for Medicare purposes under the Health Insurance Act 1973 and will align Medicare eligibility for GPs with the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, NRAS, and the requirements therein.

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, the MBA, which is responsible for standards for the medical profession, including specialist registration and, of course, setting standards for mandatory continuing professional development, CPD. 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 general practitioners. Services Australia will automatically update GPs' Medicare access, based on regular data provided by AHPRA, and this will simplify processes for GPs with their Medicare recognition.

The bill will also update the definition of 'general practitioner' in the Health Insurance Act 1973 to align with the national registration arrangements. Transitional and grandfathering provisions to be made in the Health Insurance Regulations 2018 will also 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, the RACGP, and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, ACRRM, are the professional bodies for general practice and, together with the MBA, are responsible for ensuring quality in general practice across the country. Every three years, the RACGP and ACRRM advise Services Australia that GPs are compliant with CPD requirements to maintain patient access to higher Medicare rebates. This amendment will remove this duplicative reporting of CPD to Medicare. Extensive consultation with the RACGP and ACRRM, the Australian Medical Association, AHPRA and the MBA, has involved careful consideration to ensure 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 repealed legislation and replaces it with 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.

I'm pleased to report that key stakeholders have been consulted as part of the drafting of the bill and support these streamlined processes. I'd like to extend my thanks to the professional groups, many of which have already been mentioned, who engaged with the proposals in this bill. I thank senators once again for their contribution and commend this bill to the Senate.