Medicare knows when you go on holiday, govt crackdown reveals
Laws passed in 2020 allowed health officials to match passenger records with MBS claiming data.
Health officials are tracking doctors making potentially fraudulent Medicare claims from overseas via passenger movement records provided by the Department of Home Affairs.
Despite the rise of telehealth, section 10 of the Health Insurance Act rules that MBS benefits are only payable for services rendered in Australia — meaning both doctor and patient must be located in Australia.
Recently the Department of Health and Aged Care introduced an audit program to address what it called the “claiming behaviour” of doctors when they go overseas.
In a statement to 6minutes, it said: “The department routinely uses data matching of MBS and PBS claiming data to identify possible incorrect claiming, inappropriate practice and fraud.
