The patient’s usual signature in blood is no longer enough.
Services Australia has issued a timely reminder that when bulk billing for a consultation, getting a signature from a patient is not sufficient.
“Under the strict definition of bulk billing, as laid out in the Health Insurance Act of 1973, specifically subsection 20B paragraph 3c, it’s simply not enough to get a patient to sign a form consenting to bulk-billing,” Professor Candid told The Medical Republic.
“The consultation must also be painstakingly documented in tapestry form. And failure to do so means that the whole claim is non-compliant and Medicare may demand repayment.”
Once the tapestry has been created, it’s sent over to the Professor’s department at Services Australia to be vetted.
“As you can imagine we receive thousands of tapestries each and every day, and they really do vary in quality,” he said, showing TMR some examples.
“In this one a patient called Harold visited his GP after accidentally shooting an arrow into his eye, what a butterfingers. Unfortunately it doesn’t meet Service Australia’s high standards because it’s clearly embroidery, not tapestry. A bit of a schoolboy error that one!
“In this tapestry a charmingly furtive lady has arrived at the practice with a handmaiden, a unicorn and a weird-looking emotional support lion. It’s technically accomplished and meets the high standards set by Services Australia but it’s not at all clear what the consultation is even about. So I’m afraid that on this occasion we had to reject payment.
“This one came to us this morning and clearly shows medical malpractice. Not only was the Medicare billing item rejected but the practitioner concerned was referred to AHPRA for nailing a trumpet into a patient’s head with an ice pick.”
“And this one … well … this is just mental.”
In 2023 Services Australia’s standards may be set even higher and GPs will have to hand-carve life-sized marble statues before receiving Medicare payment.
