Mark Butler backs crackdown on GP co-claiming MBS nurse items with chronic disease plans
The federal Minister for Health and Aged Care has backed his department after it warned 600 GPs against co-claiming a $12.70 practice nurse MBS item with chronic disease care plans.
The nudge letters sent to GPs earlier this year caused a storm, amid their warnings that claiming MBS item 10997 for practice nurse–led chronic disease care at the same time as care plan items 721 and 732 should not be done “routinely”.
Victorian GP Dr Peter Meggyesy received a letter after co-claiming the items 300 times in a one-year period, telling AusDoc that most GPs assumed the item was for when a practice nurse helped a GP with a care plan review and billed it this way.
And Dr Danny Byrne, an Adelaide GP who also received a letter, took to ABC radio to berate Mr Butler, accusing the minister of “losing control of his department”.
