The Government has amended the Health Insurance (General Medical Services Table) Regulations (the Regulations) with effect from 1 March 2010 to remove the definition of ‘therapeutic substance’ from those Regulations.
Prior to this amendment, services by medical practitioners involving the administration of therapeutic substances only attracted Medicare benefits if those substances had been registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for the clinical indication for which they had been assessed.
The change affects all Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items referring to therapeutic substances. The Government expects that, as part of this process for any off-label drug use, appropriate consent will be obtained from patients.
Consultation Paper - Perfusion Services
The Department of Health and Ageing has released a consultation paper and is seeking submissions from interested parties on the current Medicare arrangements for the payment of whole body perfusion (cardiac bypass), using the heart-lung machine or equivalent under the MBS Item 22060 by 1 August 2010.
The May 2010 Medicare Benefits Schedule
The January 2010 Medicare Benefits Schedule
Incorporating 1 February 2010 cataract surgery item fee amendments
The November 2009 Medicare Benefits Schedule
The MBS software files are available to download
MBS Online - Top 10 created publications
The top 10 most popular created publications created by MBS Online users available to download now.