Stuart Park Surgery is a mixed-billing practice. (Billing is a mixture of private fees and bulk billing to Medicare.)
As at May 2023, our Standard Consultation (daytime) fee is $90 (with a $39.75 rebate from Medicare).
A telephone consultation is also $90 with a Medicare rebate of $39.75.
Fees for a Long Consultation (20 minutes or more with the doctor) are $150 for more than 20 minutes (with a $76.95 rebate from Medicare), and $180 for more than 30 minutes (still with only a $76.95 rebate from Medicare). Longer consultation times, and procedures, attract other fees.
In order to provide quality medical care with properly trained doctors, nurses and receptionists, we charge private fees, and patients claim their rebate from Medicare. Funds from Medicare can be transferred directly into your account on the day, so that the out-of-pocket costs are minimised.
When Medicare commenced in 1983, it guaranteed to refund to patients 85% of the scheduled doctors’ fees, and to keep up with inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Within a few years, Medicare changed its policy, and has increased its payments at half the rate of inflation. Presently, Medicate rebate increases are frozen. After 30 years of this, the Medicare rebate now sits at less than half the scheduled doctors’ fees. This is why patients only get back half of what they pay to doctors. In addition, there are no penalty rates paid by Medicare for doctors attending patients after-hours up until 8pm weeknights and on Saturday mornings. Medicare expects doctors to work extended hours without these penalties.
Rather than billing the patient, doctors can directly bill Medicare and receive that 50% or so of their fee. This is what is known as bulk billing. However, legislation makes it illegal for a doctor to charge the patient an additional top-up fee for the difference (a co-payment), when they bulk bill Medicare.
Some doctors have adapted to Medicare’s half-payment of fees by providing half-care to their patient. When all patient billings are directed to Medicare, these are referred to as bulk billing clinics, and the doctors often provide a reduced standard of service to the patient with shorter consultation times. Rather than spending time and skills on adequate history-taking and examination of the patient, a few brief questions might be followed by the ordering of unnecessary tests and investigations, or a referral to another practitioner. However, the service is free to the patient. In Darwin, some of the doctors providing these services are poorly trained and do not hold a Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
At Stuart Park Surgery, we try to keep our fees as low as possible. We generally charge less than AMA (Australian Medical Association) rates for consultations, procedures and Medical Examinations. Our current fees are displayed on notices within the surgery and are available from our receptionists.
