Medicare Benefits Schedule Review

Background

In April 2015, the Australian Minister for Health, the Hon Sussan Ley MP, announced the formation of the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce (the Taskforce) and the Primary Health Care Advisory Group (PHCAG), as part of the Government’s Healthier Medicare initiative.

The purpose of The Taskforce is to review the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) in its entirety, considering individual items as well as the rules and legislation governing their application.

Clinical Committees

The Taskforce has established Clinical Committees to assist with the Review. These committees are made up of clinicians, consumers and other experts. 

What has happened since the announcement?

The Clinical Committees have identified a number of MBS items as obsolete because:

• the items or services have no clinical purpose in contemporary practice,
• the services identified are better covered under other items, or
• the items are no longer used for the purpose for which they were introduced.

In December 2015, the five Clinical Committees released reommendations about these obselete items. See Obsolete MBS items - Tranche #1 consultation document for more information.