That a 20-minute mental health consultation attracts a lower rebate than any other 20-minute GP consultation ($75.80 vs $76.95) is an oddity even by Medicare’s standards.

That is especially so when officials have warned GPs that daring to bill an item 36 for treating mental illness might construe inappropriate billing.

This month, we confronted the Department of Health and Aged Care about this apparently blatant case of disease discrimination.

It said the disparity was not planned policy but an unhappy accident born from the Medicare freeze.