Doctors slam Medicare fraud allegations
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said most doctors in Australia are ethical and will be “sickened” by a recent report claiming Medicare is rorted by up to $8 billion per year.
A joint ABC and Nine investigation claimed that some medical practitioners charged for services that were never delivered by billing dead people and falsifying patient medical records to lift their incomes. Meanwhile, others made mistakes in claims. Medicare expert Dr. Margaret Faux estimated that the fraud cost taxpayers up to $8 billion a year.
“These claims are an unjustified slur on the medical profession, with the vast majority of doctors doing the right thing by their patients and by Medicare rules,” Dr. Faux said in a statement, as reported by SBS News.
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The AMA further argued that it regularly meets with the Department of Health and “understands that there is no evidence of the widespread fraud suggested in today’s media.”
“Doctors will be sickened by [the] reporting, which is an undeserved attack on the whole profession based very much on anecdotes and individual cases,” said AMA president Steve Robson, as reported by SBS News.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Mark Butler asked the Department of Health to provide an analysis of Dr. Faux’s work and a “report on the department’s existing compliance, audit, and professional services review programs.”
“All governments must apply strict compliance standards to any publicly funded system – including Medicare – to ensure that the small minority that do the wrong thing are picked up quickly and dealt with,” he said, as reported by SBS News.
