The government has signed the death warrant for the first set of 24 obsolete procedures
The government has signed the death warrant for the first set of 24 obsolete procedures to be struck off the Medical Benefits Schedule
An expert taskforce led by Professor Bruce Robinson, Sydney University’s dean of medicine, made the choices on the advice of clinical committees in the five areas of diagnostic imaging, ENT surgery, gastroenterology, obstetrics and thoracic medicine.
The decluttering of the MBS is intended to make claiming choices easier for doctors and encourage clinical best practice, but the review is also seen as a savings opportunity.
Overall, the 24 item numbers to vanish from the schedule on 1 July were used on 52,000 occasions in 2014-15, costing Medicare $6.8 million.
They include the injection of hormones to manage habitual miscarriage, for which just 30 services were recorded in the year, and pelvimetry with just 13 services.
The experts voted out Graham’s test for x-ray of the gall bladder and bile duct, venography to diagnose deep-vein thrombosis and vasoepididymography to assess seminal tract obstruction – all superseded by technology.
Also to be deleted are Klockoff’s test for hearing, sigmoidoscopy with diathermy or resection, and cryotherapy for nasal turbinates and nasal haemorrhage.
