Medical students face new ‘brain bleed’ subject far worse than neuroanatomy
Medical school students are facing changes to the curriculum of the sort that, if they know what is coming, may trigger a bigger heart sink than neuroanatomy.
It’s likely to be called Medicare – An Introduction.
The Federal Government has put out a tender asking medical schools to develop and trial an education course for students on the intricacies of the notorious patient rebate system.
A two-year pilot will be run at up to five universities and will involve lectures, webinars, videos and online modules, with possible assessments to check their understanding of the material.
The expansion of the curriculum is the fallout of a dubious media campaign back in 2022 which claimed that doctor fraud and other forms of ‘leakage’ were costing the Medicare system some $8 billion a year.
There was little evidence supplied to back the assertions.
But the independent investigation by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing concluded that doctors found the MBS, with its esoteric descriptors, its arcane rules and its 6000-plus Medicare items, an administrative brain bleed.
Known as the Philip Review, among its more comic discoveries was that for many health practitioners the answers from the AskMBS helpline could “lack specificity”.
MBS conundrums have included whether you can claim an item 721 care plan item for obesity, the treacherous waters of co-claiming an attendance item on the same day as a procedure, as well as the identity of the departmental mastermind who came up with the Assignment of Benefit reforms.
A health department spokesperson said the new university pilot courses would be exclusively offered to medical students “to introduce foundational Medicare concepts early so they can progressively build on that knowledge over time”.
Many doctors confronted with the MBS have questioned the meaning of their existence. At least medical students cannot complain they were never warned of what is to come.
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