121 MEDICAL CENTRE IS MIXED BILLING PRACTICE

FULL PAYMENT NEEDS TO BE DONE AT THE TIME OF CONSULTATION

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1. What is bulk billing?

Bulk billing means that the doctor is paid directly by Medicare, on behalf of the patient. This means that the amount paid for each medical service is the amount set by the Australian Government. Note that some consultations such as occupational and Workcover consultations are not covered at all by Medicare and will need to be paid for privately at the time of consultation.

2. Do the doctors bulk bill?

Some services are bulk billed, including childhood immunisations, chronic disease care plans (item 721) and Government-funded health assessments.

3. Why don’t the doctors bulk bill everything?

Unfortunately, the amount set by the Government for a consultation is insufficient to cover the costs of providing a high-quality medical service. For example, the Medicare rebate for a standard consultation is $39.75. The government provides this amount for a complex consultation lasting up to 20 minutes, and from this, the doctor pays a percentage to the practice to cover practice running and facility use costs.

4. Why would I choose to pay a private fee rather than go to a bulk billing clinic?

Because of the low value the Australian Government places on primary care and General Practitioners as discussed above, bulk billing doctors will often need to see more patients in an hour, often need patients to come back to get test results and may not be able to spend as much time addressing your medical needs.

The benefit of Private billing;

• Private billing doctors tend to have a more stable pool of repeat patients, meaning you can develop good personal relationships during consultation and gain a better idea of your patient’s medical history.

• Practices that use private billing often have a lower daily patient intake. With the pressure to get patients in and out the door quickly alleviated, this allows doctors to spend longer with each patient and provided a higher quality of care.

  We value the doctors working from our practice and assist them to maintain a very high-quality service and therefore assist the doctors in the provision of a private billing service.

Fees- fee estimates are provided at the time of booking, and your doctor will provide a quote if additional fees are payable.

 

We still offers bulk billing services for :

-DVA card holder

-Above 65 years old Aged pensioner card holder

-Children less than 13 years old