Tougher Medicare rules for vitamin B12 tests under $365 million pathology savings plan
Last week's federal budget finally took up a handful of MBS Review recommendations from 2018.
Health officials are cracking down on Medicare-funded vitamin B12 and urine examination requests as part of a $365 million budget savings plan.
From July next year, MBS item 66839 for quantification of B12 marker such as holotranscobalamin and methylmalonic acid (schedule fee $42.95) will be limited to once per patient per year as recommended by the MBS Review Taskforce back in 2018.
At the time, the task force’s diagnostic medicine committee said it was concerned that claims for quantification tests were 20% higher than claims for serum B12 tests (item 66838, schedule fee $23.60) — possibly because the latter had a 12-month frequency restriction.
The latest data show this disparity has since ballooned to 220%.
