Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Govt Extends Medicare Service


mri
Originally uploaded by Sydney Weasel.
The Government has decided to provide ten additional Medicare-eligible Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) services around Australia to serve areas with a relative undersupply of MRI and with the population and infrastructure to support these services.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Government has decided to provide ten additional Medicare-eligible Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) services around Australia.

MRI uses strong magnetic fields to generate images used to diagnose conditions such as cancer and strokes. It is especially effective on soft tissue and, unlike some other imaging tools such as X-rays and Computed Tomography (CT) scans, MRI does not use ionising radiation. It is an expensive and sophisticated technology so MRI units need to be located where they can do the most good.

The new MRI units will serve areas with a relative undersupply of MRI and with the population and infrastructure to support these services. My department’s recommendations have taken into account a range of demographic and clinical considerations, such as the number of referring specialists in the area. The Government has also considered the needs of major hospitals dealing in orthopaedics, oncology, neurology and neurosurgery.

This opportunity arises because the expansion of Medicare-eligible units in 2004 proved less costly than anticipated. This latest expansion makes use of some of these savings. The balance of the savings will be returned to a capped funding pool for Diagnostic Imaging rebates under Medicare.

The new Medicare-licensed services will be located in:

Townsville, Queensland
Ipswich, Queensland
Blacktown, NSW
Darlinghurst, NSW
Nowra, NSW
Gosford, NSW
Knox, Victoria
Sunshine, Victoria
Shepparton, Victoria
Fremantle, WA

This expansion will mean that 112 MRI units will be Medicare-eligible, an increase from just 18 in 1998.

In most of these areas, MRI-equipped providers are already operating and negotiations with existing providers will commence immediately. Minimising out-of-pocket costs to patients will be central to any licence agreement. In one area, Ipswich, where an unlicensed provider has not been identified as being ready immediately to provide the Medicare-eligible service, a short tender process will be undertaken to select a provider.

The Government is continuing to work with the radiology industry and profession on the Quality Use of Diagnostic Imaging, and on related matters such as appropriate radiology referral and accreditation.

The Government expects to announce more details about these additional MRI licences in the next few weeks.