Medicare to axe maligned 20-minute mental health consult
A Medicare quirk meant that item 2713 had a lower rebate than item 36 despite the same time requirements.
A famous Medicare oddity, item 2713 for a mental health consultation, is being scrapped along with the item for a mental health care plan review, health officials say.
Item 2713 provides a rebate of $83.65 for a consultation lasting at least 20 minutes — even though the general level C consultation item, with the same time requirements, provides $84.90.
This difference is an idiosyncrasy borne out of how the Medicare freeze ended back in 2018.
The items were once valued equally, but the level C item was unfrozen earlier than the mental health item, giving it a permanent and insurmountable head start by the time the Medicare freeze ended on both and regular indexation resumed.
