We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
While doctors who obtained their undergraduate and postgraduate training in Australia are likely to have a reasonable understanding of the Australian health-care system, overseas-trained doctors may have more difficulty negotiating the Australian system to adequately meet the needs of their patients and to avoid legal problems for themselves. This chapter outlines the Australian health-care system in simple terms and describes in more detail the two main elements relevant to doctors: Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
Medicare and the PBS are managed by Medicare Australia, formerly known as the Health Insurance Commission. These two elements are central to the clinical practice of medicine outside the public hospital system, as they provide government payments for medical services and pharmaceuticals and include centralised monitoring, enforcement and disciplinary procedures related to payments to doctors for medical services. Doctors who deliberately or through ignorance breach the regulations of these systems may face heavy fines and/or disqualification from participation. They are also likely to be subject to disciplinary action by medical boards. This chapter focuses on health services provided by doctors and does not canvas regulations relating to dentists, pharmacists or other health-care providers.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM
People seeking medical attention in Australia are free to attend any general practitioner of their choice or to attend a public hospital to see a doctor employed by the hospital. General practitioners are part of what is called the ‘private’ component of the Australian health-care system.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
