New review of Medicare claiming

Using Medicare claims data, the Department of Human Services will review co-located health practitioners who may be engaged in over-servicing or incorrect claims under Medicare.

The Department will speak with those general practitioners, as well as any other medical or allied health practitioners who are co-located and whose pattern of billing is different to that of the majority of their peers, the Minister for Human Services, Senator Jan McLucas said.

Besides trying to detect possible inappropriate practice, the review will provide the Department with a better understanding of the impact of new business models on health practitioner billing behaviours, she added.

Senator McLucas said that the project will have a strong education focus, and resources are being developed to provide practitioners with information about billing under Medicare.