Gastroenterologists are amongst those exploiting a dysfunctional Medicare system, says the former head of the body responsible for policing it.
In a scathing critique published in yesterday’s MJA, Dr Tony Webber identified a system “riddled with misdirected incentives” for doctors, with inadequate safeguards to protect against rorting by unscrupulous practitioners.
Webber, who ended a tempestuous six-year tenure as Director of Professional Services Review (PSR) last August, took specific aim at gastroenterologists and cardiologists.
“While most … practice ethically, there are a few practitioners whose repeated use of procedures and investigations in highly questionable in patients whose clinical condition appears not to warrant them,” he wrote.
The comment was related to his criticism of the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS), which he said failed to stay...
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