Senate demands report on dental scheme

Coalition and Greens Senators combined today to pass a motion for Medicare to provide details on actions taken against dentists who have been found to be non-compliant under the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme.
Medicare has to produce the report by 7 February – the first day the Senate sits next year.
The motion, moved by Senator Fierravanti-Wells (Liberal, NSW), calls for the full report from Medicare on:
(i) the actions taken against the 41 dentists so far found to be non-compliant with the scheme,
(ii) the options available to Medicare in each case,
(iii) the options considered by Medicare in each case, and
(iv) reasons for the course of action decided on.
The motion stresses that the Senate holds grave concerns regarding the actions of Medicare against dental practitioners for apparent minor and technical breaches of the scheme; and calls on the Government to convey these concerns to Medicare.
The motion states that Medicare has completed only 62 audits of the 11,469 dentists who have participated in the scheme. Of these audits, 41 dentists have been found to be non-compliant with the scheme.
Currently between 419 and 556 audits are in process, according to the motion.