Dentists highlight dental scheme concerns to Senate committee
Representatives of the Federal office of the Australian Dental Association and the NSW Branch last Tuesday took part in a Senate Inquiry examining a Bill which aims to address concerns surrounding Medicare’s auditing of the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme (CDDS).
Federal President Dr Shane Fryer and the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Robert Boyd-Boland, were the first to give evidence to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation committee. Dr Fryer said “that the current level of concern within the profession on a government funded dental scheme is unprecedented. Furthermore, dentistry is not the same as medicine. Dentistry is different. Had this been recognised at the time of the rollout of the CDDS, things may have been very different. We may not in fact be sitting here now dealing with the problems that have arisen”.
The inquiry was brought about after Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton and Senator David Bushby (Tasmania), with the assistance of Senator Eric Abetz (Tasmania), introduced a Private Members Bill into the House of Representatives and the Senate in March, which aims to redress past and future inequities regarding Medicare’s auditing of dental practitioners participating in the CDDS.
ADANSW’s President Dr Mark Sinclair told the committee: “Dentists should not be penalised if they have provided appropriate dental treatment in a timely fashion to patients with chronic disease simply because they failed to comply with paperwork requirements they misunderstood or even were unaware of. This profession would never assert it is immune from scrutiny, audit or review, nor will it ever condone fraudulent activities against the crown or defective and inappropriate delivery of care. This audit process has highlighted the poor construct and implementation of the law that was developed with little or no consultation with the profession and would manifestly fail the test applied by the common man of basic fairness in its most simple application”.
Committee members questioned three public servants – Ms Kerry Flanagan, Deputy Secretary, Department of Health and Ageing; Ms Veronica Hancock, Assistant Secretary, Hospital Development and Dental Branch, Department of Health and Ageing; and Mr Ben Rimmer, Associate Secretary, Department of Human Services – were questioned about educating dental practitioners about the scheme, the auditing processes, legislation and other aspects of the scheme.
More than 400 written submissions - including ADAVB's - were made to the Committee about the Bill in just three weeks.
Federal President Dr Shane Fryer and the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Robert Boyd-Boland, were the first to give evidence to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation committee. Dr Fryer said “that the current level of concern within the profession on a government funded dental scheme is unprecedented. Furthermore, dentistry is not the same as medicine. Dentistry is different. Had this been recognised at the time of the rollout of the CDDS, things may have been very different. We may not in fact be sitting here now dealing with the problems that have arisen”.
The inquiry was brought about after Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton and Senator David Bushby (Tasmania), with the assistance of Senator Eric Abetz (Tasmania), introduced a Private Members Bill into the House of Representatives and the Senate in March, which aims to redress past and future inequities regarding Medicare’s auditing of dental practitioners participating in the CDDS.
ADANSW’s President Dr Mark Sinclair told the committee: “Dentists should not be penalised if they have provided appropriate dental treatment in a timely fashion to patients with chronic disease simply because they failed to comply with paperwork requirements they misunderstood or even were unaware of. This profession would never assert it is immune from scrutiny, audit or review, nor will it ever condone fraudulent activities against the crown or defective and inappropriate delivery of care. This audit process has highlighted the poor construct and implementation of the law that was developed with little or no consultation with the profession and would manifestly fail the test applied by the common man of basic fairness in its most simple application”.
Committee members questioned three public servants – Ms Kerry Flanagan, Deputy Secretary, Department of Health and Ageing; Ms Veronica Hancock, Assistant Secretary, Hospital Development and Dental Branch, Department of Health and Ageing; and Mr Ben Rimmer, Associate Secretary, Department of Human Services – were questioned about educating dental practitioners about the scheme, the auditing processes, legislation and other aspects of the scheme.
More than 400 written submissions - including ADAVB's - were made to the Committee about the Bill in just three weeks.
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