‘Can I keep the leftover money?’ Patients bamboozled by GP Health Care Homes
Once sold as a Medicare revolution, the GP capitation model was meant to be an alternative to fee-for-service
The Health Care Homes capitation revolution floundered because patients were confused, with some mistakenly believing it meant being treated at home and others thinking they could keep any leftover money for themselves.
At least these are some of the findings of a new study into what was once billed as the single biggest health reform since Medicare.
Scrapped in June 2021, four years after launching, the Federal Government’s experiment with ending fee-for-service meant GP practices were given between $591 and $1795 annually to fund the care of each patients.
But the qualitative study suggested patients at registered practices were bewildered by what was happening.
