Key Points
- A joint ABC and Nine investigation reports some doctors have been billing dead people and falsifying patient records.
- A Medicare expert estimates the waste and rorts cost the system up to $8 billion a year, according to the ABC.
Claims the Medicare system is being rorted by up to $8 billion a year is "an unjustified slur on the medical profession" and are an "undeserved attack on the whole profession", Australia's peak medical body says.
The comments from the Australian Medical Association (AMA) come after a joint ABC and Nine newspapers investigation revealed some practitioners were ripping off the system and charging for services that were never delivered.
According to the report, some doctors have been billing dead people and falsifying patient medical records to lift their incomes. Others were making mistakes on claims.
Medicare expert Dr Margaret Faux estimated the fraud was costing taxpayers up to $8 billion a year, the publications report.
"These claims are an unjustified slur on the medical profession, with the vast majority of doctors doing the right thing by their patients and by Medicare rules," the AMA said in a statement.
A joint ABC and Nine newspapers investigation revealed some doctors were ripping off the system and charging for services that were never delivered. Source: AAP
“Doctors will be sickened by today’s reporting which is an undeserved attack on the whole profession based very much on anecdotes and individual cases," AMA president Steve Robson said.
Health Minister Mark Butler said he had asked the Health Department to provide him with an analysis of Dr Faux's work, and "a report on the department’s existing compliance, audit and Professional Services Review programs."
“All governments must apply strict compliance standards to any publicly funded system – including Medicare – to ensure that the small minority that do the wrong thing are picked up quickly and dealt with," he said in a statement.
Ealier, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government was investigating the allegations and labelled the claims "absolutely atrocious".
"If these numbers are true, it's absolutely atrocious. Every dollar rorted, whether it's from Medicare or the NDIS, is a dollar thieved from people who need and deserve good health care," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
"If you're stealing from Medicare or the NDIS, you're a grub. It means that money that's not exactly thick on the ground in the budget is not going to people who need it."
Mr Chalmers wants a crackdown on people who rort the Medicare system, describing the report as very troubling.
"(It is) something that we will get to the bottom of because we don't want to see a single dollar rorted or thieved from the system when it could go to helping people who are vulnerable," he said.
Government Services and NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said while the "vast majority" of general practitioners did the right thing, payments integrity was a problem.
"It drives taxpayers to despair if they think that some people are opportunistically rorting the system," he told Nine's Today show on Monday.
"Crooks do leave footprints ... obviously we have got to make sure there is complete confidence in the system but we need to put the crooks on notice that 'you will get caught'."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government is investigating the allegations. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
"We need to come down on these people like a ton of bricks because Australians feel protective of Medicare and they want to keep Medicare and they love the way our health system works, but it cannot work if you have people ripping it off," she said.
"For those people who are ripping it off, they need to face the full consequences of the law."
