Political decisions to increase GP ‘workforce priority’ areas branded a serious policy failure
The review said 'blanket' rules based on a practice's remoteness should not determine IMGs' Medicare access.
Automatic access to Medicare for IMGs working outside metropolitan cities should be scrapped, a Federal Government review has concluded.
It comes two years after the Federal Government radically extended the number of communities classified as a Distribution Priority Area (DPA), which allowed GP practices in these communities to recruit IMG doctors who could bill Medicare.
The RDAA attacked the move, accusing the government of ripping off rural communities “to buy city votes”.
The Working Better for Medicare Review has backed many of the complaints made by rural doctors in its final report which found some 85% of the 857 GP catchment areas in Australia now had DPA status.
