Medicare is dysfunctional, outdated, and susceptible to rorts totalling as much as $3 billion annually, says the former head of the body responsible for policing it.
In a scathing critique published in today’s MJA, Dr Tony Webber identified a system “riddled with misdirected incentives” for doctors, with inadequate safeguards to protect against rorting by unscrupulous practitioners.
Webber, who ended a six-year tenure as Director of Professional Services Review (PSR) last August, took aim at the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) for not keeping up to date with technological improvements.
“Once items are on the MBS, as long as they are still being used, they are rarely re-evaluated, and they attract the yearly rise in benefit level,” he wrote.
This was despite certain procedures being...
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