The Federal Government’s Medical Costs Finder is touted as the answer to ‘bill shock’, with the website revealing the out-of-pocket fees specialists charge for a list of common medical procedures. 

Its arrival in 2019 came at a time when Dr Charlie Teo was (once again) in the headlines over his $100,000 neurosurgeries where people facing life or death were resorting to crowd-funding to raise the necessary cash.

Then-Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy even revealed he was in discussions with specialist colleges and the Medical Board of Australia about whether doctors “at the very extreme end of excessive billing practice should be considered unethical”.

So the Costs Finder was sold as a mechanism to end price gouging from “minority of specialists” by equipping patients with the information to help them shop elsewhere.