That’s one way to do government, we guess.
The Department of Health and Aged Care will be delaying planned changes to chronic disease management plans until July next year, rather than November this year.
“The deferral is to support all practices and providers, including GPs and allied health providers, to be ready for the changes to these important services,” a spokesman for the department told The Medical Republic.
“This includes work to prepare practice software to support the new plan.”
Under the changes, which were originally flagged in the 2023 budget, the items for GP management plans and team care arrangement creation and review will cease to exist.
Instead, there will be four new items – the major difference being that the planning and review rebates will be equal, in an attempt to encourage follow-up care.
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DoHAC never committed a dollar amount to the new items, despite publishing the actual item numbers online.
The updated timeline reportedly appeared on DoHAC’s official MBS Chronic Disease Management Arrangements webpage earlier today – only to disappear when The Medical Republic checked in the afternoon.
It has now reappeared.
“I look forward to working with the Government to ensure that there is enough funding for Australian’s living with chronic illness to get the care they need from their GP,” RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said.
