Cataract Chaos Highlights Need For Proper Consultation With Medical Profession, Australia

Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 29 Nov 2009 - 0:00 PST

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AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the ongoing chaos over Medicare patient rebates for cataract surgery stresses the need for proper meaningful consultation with the medical profession before cuts or changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) are considered, not after the event.

Dr Pesce said Parliament will rise without this matter being properly resolved and patients waiting for cataract surgery will go to Christmas and the holiday season anxious and uncertain about their sight-restoring operation.

"The AMA position is that the original rebate should have been restored while a formal consultation process with the profession was put in place to reach a workable agreed outcome for all parties, but especially for patients," Dr Pesce said.

"We believe this is still possible.

"The Minister should continue to consult with the profession on the other cuts they made in the Budget.

"The confrontation and controversy surrounding these savage cuts to Medicare patient rebates could have been avoided if the medical profession - the doctors who perform these procedures every day and understand the needs of patients - had been consulted prior to these poor policy decisions being made.

"We look forward to a productive consultation process being established to fix the mistakes of the past and avoid similar mistakes in the future," Dr Pesce said.

Source
Australian Medical Association