Is after hours care keeping people out of the emergency department?
You have probably heard a lot about Medicare this election cycle, and you may have heard recently about the so-called blow out of after hours GP service.
This is a bulk-billed service that costs four times as much as a standard GP consultation, and the service cost Medicare $195 million dollars in the last financial year.
The theory is that it keeps people out of the emergency room, but is this the case?
Margaret Faux is the CEO of Synapse Medical Services. She is also currently undertaking a PhD on Medicare claiming and compliance at the University of Technology Sydney.
Producer: Ellen Leabeater
Image: Dan Wiedbrauk on Flickr.
