Named referral Medicare rort: Officials to investigate ‘multiple tip-offs’
The Department of Health has been asking for info on public hospitals demanding named referrals for outpatient consults
A number of public hospitals will apparently be investigated for demanding that GPs write named referrals so outpatients can be funded by Medicare.
It follows a call by the federal Department of Health for tip-offs about the double-dipping rort, which has become a bugbear for many GPs.
There have long been claims that the rort is being ignored.
But the department had confirmed that, under the National Health Reform Agreement, a public hospital “must not control referral pathways by requiring named referrals for access to [its outpatient] clinics”.
