Once again, the AMA is pushing a significant structural change to GP consultation time tiers, from five to seven items.

The rationale? Better support for complex care, given the current items may not reflect the complexities of modern general practice, such as managing chronic disease and mental illness.

The AMA is basically ascribing an equal dollar value to every minute of an hour (see table below) when it comes to consults beyond 10 minutes.

This single change completely removes the experience of the doctor from the equation.