Federal Opposition Bill supports dentists

The Health Insurance (Dental Services) Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives today by the Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing, Mr Peter Dutton. The Bill seeks to ensure that dentists who have provided appropriate dental treatment to almost one million chronically ill patients since November 2007 are not unfairly penalised for failing to comply with strict administrative requirements that have little or no bearing on patient treatment and patient outcomes. Since the beginning of 2010 an internal audit program established by Medicare Australia has focused on auditing compliance by dentists who have participated in the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme. At the end of last year there were nearly 1000 audits that were under consideration or active with no sign of abatement. Audits completed to date by Medicare Australia indicate that more than 70% of all dentists audited were non‐compliant with administrative aspects of this scheme. ADAVB believes about 90% of all dentists who have participated would be deemed non‐compliant under the existing audit regime.