Only 4 per cent of Canberra GPs bulk bill all patients, new report reveals

The analysis conducted by Cleanbill, a healthcare comparison online directory, found there were only four GP clinics across Canberra and Queanbeyan that offered bulk billing to all patients.

The average cost for a 15-minute GP appointment in Canberra is $88.67, with patients left to pay $48.92 after the $39.75 Medicare rebate is applied.

Cleanbill founder James Gillespie said the research was conducted in August and September. He said every GP clinic in Canberra and Queanbeyan was called as part of the analysis.

All 100 clinics were asked to provide the cost for a standard and long consultation. Mr Gillespie said all but one clinic handed over the information.

"Of the 95 clinics that don't bulk bill the average out-of-pocket costs for a standard 15-minute consultation is $48.92 and the average out-of-pocket was $66.65 for longer consultations," he said.

The analysis also looked at GP costs at a suburb level. It found GP clinics in Mawson had the highest average out-of-pocket costs for patients at $58.25. This was followed by the City at $53.60, Bruce at $52.90 and Kingston at $52.90.

The lowest average out-of-pocket cost was in Belconnen at $37.25. Followed by Wanniassa at $44.50, Holt at $47.90 and Queanbeyan at $48.

Only suburbs with three or more GP clinics were included as part of the breakdown.

Cleanbill's analysis did not include information on whether clinics offered bulk billing to certain patients - children or concession card holders, for example.

"The key question for us is if you were an adult with a Medicare card walking into one of these clinics during their regular business hours would the doctor charge you an out-of-pocket fee to see a doctor there," Mr Gillespie said.

The ACT has consistently had the lowest rates of bulk billing in the country and this has been exacerbated over recent years as Canberra and Queanbeyan were cut off from federal government rural incentives.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said she had raised issues of primary care accessibility and workforce issues in the ACT in meetings with new federal Health Minister Mark Butler.

She said the territory government was undertaking feasibility studies for four more health centres in the territory to help more Canberrans access free health care.

"This study is investigating potential sites and services for each centre. The new centres are proposed to have a focus on prevention, early intervention and coordinated care for people with chronic illness," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

Meanwhile, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has issued a dire warning on the future of clinics, president Karen Price saying the sector was on "life support".

In a pre-budget submission the college has called on the government to increase Medicare rebates for longer consultations.

"Medicare has really hit crunch time now ... Medicare rebates haven't kept up with costs," Dr Price said.

"The longer you spend with a patient the less you earn, which is ridiculous.

"This is creating a moral hazard as our population ages and we're getting more and more complex chronic conditions as we need to spend more time with patients with mental health, with disability and aged care."

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The college has also called on an increase to the bulk billing incentive to GPs to enable them to see more people on lower incomes.

"Health system funding is a really complex issue and we don't want to choke the system ... so we want to have this middle path and that means supporting particularly vulnerable patients," Dr Price said.

"We've recommended that the bulk billing incentives for patients on health care cards and lower socioeconomic areas to have their bulk billing incentive tripled which starts to address the gap they're having to pay now because we need to meet the cost of providing the nurses and the infrastructure for the clinic."

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