What do specialists charge their poorest patients? | Australian Doctor
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What do specialists charge their poorest patients? Hugo Wilcken and Paul Smith
| 3 March, 2016 |
29 comments Read Later
Specialists are charging low-income patients $26 less for an initial consult compared with their wealthiest patients, Australian economists say. The discounts vary substantially between specialties, with neurosurgeons charging their higherincome patients $53 more. Dermatologists and ENT specialists also discriminate highly according to income (see table below). The researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) called their paper Bleeding Hearts, Profiteers or Both? and concluded their findings were "consistent with profit maximisation behaviour by specialists".
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johartley Dear John Smith I am not sure, we have not seen any come up, so possibly and issue with DISQUS. Apologies. please post again and I will... Bleeding hearts or profiteers? What specialists charge their poorest patients · 2 hours ago johartley Thanks subtractor, ill ask our IT guys to look int it. Jo GP guide to treating hep C with new antivirls · 2 hours ago
Related News: • GPs to warn patients of specialists’ fees under revamp • Fee-gouging surgeons to be exposed Their study only looked at specialists who saw both low- and high-income patients and therefore had the opportunity to discriminate between the two patient groups. Average initial consult fee (MBS item 104) for high- and low-income patients by speciality Specialty
High-income patients
Low-income patients
Average fee gap
Neurosurgery
$206
$153
$53
Dermatology
$145
$108
$37
General surgery
$136
$106
$30
Urology
$153
$125
$28
Ophthalmology
$134
$107
$27
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
$149
$125
$24
Plastic surgery
$143
$126
$17
Cardio-thoracic surgery
$140
$118
$22
Orthopaedic surgery
$150
$132
$18
DR. AHAD KHAN Dear ' DannyF ' I am referring to Nurses / Pharmacists / PysioTherapists, etc. etc. who want to work as GPs. DR. AHAD KHAN College wants 'close monitoring' of country's IMG needs · 3 hours ago
About 80% of specialists charge their high-income patients more, and around 20% of specialists charge them an average $50 more.
http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/latest-news/bleeding-hearts-or-profiteers-wh... 9/03/2016