‘Taking off like a rocket’: Butler blasts specialist fees at the 95th percentile
Making specialists list their fees on the Medical Costs Finder website is still an option for the health minister.
Specialist fees for colonoscopies and knee replacements are “taking off like a rocket” once they hit the 95th percentile, Mark Butler has said, telling the AMA that all options are on the table when it comes to reigning the worst offenders.
Speaking at the AMA annual conference in Melbourne this morning, the Minister for Health and Ageing said out-of-pocket costs for specialist consults had almost doubled, to about $2.3 billion, over the past five years.
“There are about 1.6 million payments every year, for example, that are between three and five times the average fee,” he said.
“And there are now about 220,000 payments every year that are more than five times the average.
