An Australian health company will be investigated for a second time over evidence it potentially put profits ahead of patients through over-servicing. <\/p>\n
The Federal Government has launched a second investigation after the ABC obtained evidence that Primary Health Care offered its doctors bonuses to see extra patients each day. <\/p>\n
The bonus scheme was offered to doctors working in Primary Health Care clinics across Australia between September and February next year. <\/p>\n
GPs were offered a bonus for seeing three extra patients each day and incentives to write extra diabetes and asthma management plans. <\/p>\n
When doctors write up a plan they can bill an extra charge to Medicare on top of the scheduled appointment. <\/p>\n
Health groups have been outraged by the offer and said patients were being treated like numbers to help the health company's bottom line. <\/p>\n
Primary Health Care is the country's number one provider of large medical centres and made a profit of $162 million last year. <\/p>\n
Legal experts said the bonus scheme was not a direct breach of health laws unless the result of the offer was for doctors to charge for extra unnecessary visits, called over-servicing. <\/p>\n
The majority of Primary Health Care clinics bulk-bill, and extra billings mean extra costs to the taxpayer. <\/p>\n
Primary Health Care said there was a problem with under-servicing in the health care system and the Government was trying to encourage more management plans for asthma and diabetes. <\/p>\n
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Primary Health Care investigated again over claims of incentives for GPs to over-service<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Australian health company will be investigated for a second time over evidence it potentially put profits ahead of patients through over-servicing. The Federal Government has launched a second investigation after the ABC obtained evidence that Primary Health Care offered its doctors bonuses to see extra patients each day. The bonus scheme was offered to doctors working in Primary Health Care clinics across Australia between September and February next year Continue reading