Last week the accusations of who knew what and when about the sudden changes to Medicare’s ECG item numbers were flying like bullets in a shootout.

Despite the obvious importance of ECGs to primary care and patient well-being, the Federal Government’s decision to reduce the rebate for GPs to interpret and record trace results seemed to fall from the sky.

For those who may have escaped the sound and the fury, from 1 August GPs have no longer been able to claim item 11700 (worth $27.95) for reporting trace results. Instead they have been offered a new item 11707 (worth $16.15) for doing the “trace only”.

The health department poured rocket fuel on the fire it had lit by suggesting the changes had been based on the view of the Medicare Review Taskforce that “while some GPs have the skills to interpret ECG results where an ECG trace contained no anomalies, there was a concern that where issues were identified, specialist input would be required”.