Health insurers call for federal crackdown on public hospital 'fraud'

  • 📰 smh
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 39 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 19%
  • Publisher: 80%

Health Health Headlines News

Health Health Latest News,Health Health Headlines

Health funds say they have evidence suggesting some public hospitals are admitting members as private patients only to have a junior doctor treat them.

Health funds are calling on federal health minister Greg Hunt to use the government's new data-matching powers to stop public hospitals from rorting patients with private health insurance by allowing inexperienced doctors to treat them instead of their chosen specialist.

"We have anecdotal evidence that specialist provider numbers are being used by junior doctors at the insistence of the hospital to process more patients and get more private patients through the door," she said.Mr Hunt told Parliament in October his department had found "instances of fraudulent Medicare billing where either the doctor or the patient for a service billed to Medicare was actually out of the country when the service was supposed to have been provided".

A spokesman for the minister said the Morrison government would pursue "hospital admission arrangements that ensure that public hospitals do not induce patients to use their private health insurance when they are entitled to receive the same care for free".

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

I think private patients are treated badly in hospitals when is it ever possible to have a private room? Hardly ever.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 6. in HEALTH

Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

'Unacceptable' gaps in dental health for older AustraliansWith one quarter of people aged over 65 living with complete tooth loss and more than 65 per cent of them reporting difficulty eating, the Australian Dental Association NSW says oral care needs to become a priority | rachelclun rachelclun How about making dental implants more affordable? rachelclun Another missed opportunity. rachelclun people could always pay for their own dental treatment - shock, horror
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »

Three days in a row of 40 degrees prompts rare deadly heatwave warning for PerthHealth officials are warning people in Perth to brace for three consecutive days of 40C heat. Climate change could ruin our chances. Oh no. Oh please ...60 years I’ve lived here ...the only thing deadly is the over exaggeration of the weather ...40 years I’ve examined the ants nest in our driveway ...they are still there Colonial hangover
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »