Summary of Item Changes

New Items
30687	48694	63507	63508	63510	63511	63513	63514	63516	63517	63519	63520	63522	63523	73333	73334	73335	82300	82306	82309	82312
82315	82318	82324	82327	82332
Deleted Items
11203	11212	42560	42566	42722	42728	42771
Amended Description
99	112	149	288	389	2100	2122	2126	2137	2143	2147	2195	2199	2820	3015	6016	10983	11200	13015	13210	16399
17609	21927	31527	32103	32104	32106	42551	42554	42557	42563	42569	42644	42701	42702	42703	42704	42707	42710	42713	42719	42725
42731	42746	42752	42755	42773	42779	42782	42783	42812	42815	42818	45585	51300	51303	51315	51800	51803	63482	63491	75001	75004
75150	75153	75156	75200	75203	75206	75400	75403	75406	75409	75412	75415	75600	75603	75606	75609	75612	75615	75618	75621	75800
82150	82151	82152	82220	82221	82222	82223	82224	82225
EMSN Change
3	4	20	23	24	35	36	37	43	44	47	51	52	53	54	57	58	59	60	65	92
93	95	96	99	104	105	106	107	108	109	110	112	116	119	122	128	131	132	133	135	137
139	141	143	145	147	149	160	161	162	163	164	170	171	172	173	193	195	197	199	288	289
291	293	296	297	299	300	302	304	306	308	310	312	314	316	318	319	320	322	324	326	328
330	332	334	336	338	342	344	346	348	350	352	353	355	356	357	358	359	361	364	366	367
369	370	385	386	387	388	389	410	411	412	413	414	415	416	417	501	503	507	511	515	519
520	530	532	534	536	597	598	599	600	701	703	705	707	715	721	723	729	731	732	735	739
743	747	750	758	820	822	823	825	826	828	830	832	834	835	837	838	855	857	858	861	864
866	871	872	880	900	903	2100	2122	2125	2126	2137	2138	2143	2147	2179	2195	2199	2220	2497	2501	2503
2504	2506	2507	2509	2517	2518	2521	2522	2525	2526	2546	2547	2552	2553	2558	2559	2598	2600	2603	2606	2610
2613	2616	2620	2622	2624	2631	2633	2635	2664	2666	2668	2673	2675	2677	2700	2701	2712	2713	2715	2717	2721
2723	2725	2727	2801	2806	2814	2820	2824	2832	2840	2946	2949	2954	2958	2972	2974	2978	2984	2988	2992	2996
3000	3005	3010	3014	3015	3018	3023	3028	3032	3040	3044	3051	3055	3062	3069	3074	3078	3083	3088	3093	4001
5000	5003	5010	5020	5023	5028	5040	5043	5049	5060	5063	5067	5200	5203	5207	5208	5220	5223	5227	5228	5260
5263	5265	5267	6007	6009	6011	6013	6015	6016	10801	10802	10803	10804	10805	10806	10807	10808	10809	10816	10950	10951
10952	10953	10954	10956	10958	10960	10962	10964	10966	10968	10970	10983	10984	10986	10987	10988	10989	10997	11700	14100	17609
17610	17615	17620	17625	17640	17645	17650	17655	17680	17690	20142	30071	31200	31205	31521	31527	31560	32501	32504	32507	34106
35533	37619	42590	42738	42739	42740	45003	45025	45026	45200	45203	45206	45545	45584	45585	45587	45614	45617	45620	45623	45624
31560	32501	32504	32507	34106	35533	37619	42590	42738	42739	42740	45003	45025	45026	45200	45203	45206	45545	45584	45585	45587
45614	45617	45620	45623	45624	45632	45635	45652	45659	55054	80000	80005	80010	80015	80020	80100	80105	80110	80115	80120	80125
80135	80140	80145	80150	80155	80160	80165	80170	81000	81005	81010	81100	81105	81110	81115	81120	81125	81300	81305	81310	81315
81325	81330	81335	81340	81345	81350	81355	81360	82000	82005	82010	82015	82020	82025	82030	82035	82120	82125	82150	82151	82152
82200	82205	82210	82215	82220	82221	82222	82223	82224	82225

NOTES

1 November Amendments

REVIEW OF GENERAL MEDICAL SERVICES

· Extended Medicare Safety Net - Capping Benefits for Including Items with Excessive Fees - In the 2012-13 Budget, the Government announced that it would place Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) benefit caps on an additional 38 Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) procedural items, one diagnostic imaging item and all consultation items, including for allied health services.
· Ophthalmology Review - Following the outcomes from the whole-of-speciality review of Ophthalmology Stage 1 in consultation with The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists, items 11203, 11212, 42560, 42566, 42722, 42728 and 42771 have been removed from the schedule. Additionally, 29 Ophthalmology items have been amended to reflect contemporary clinical practice.
· Minor Amendment to MBS items 32103, 32104 and 32106 - The MSAC executive approved the amendment of the MBS item descriptors 32103, 32104 and 32106 for implementation from 1 November 2012. The amendments allow the use of monocular equipment with 2D optic capacity in addition to equipment with 3D stereoscopic optic capacity for Trans-anal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TEM).
· Cervical artificial intervertebral total disc replacement - A new MBS item for the above procedure is to be implemented for 1 November 2012. Application 1145 - Artificial intervertebral disc replacement in patients with cervical degenerative disc disease was found by the Medical Advisory Services Committee (MSAC) to be safe, effective and cost -effective.
· Changes to Telehealth - As announced in the 2012-13 Budget there is an introduction of a new rule for 20 items (99, 112, 288, 389, 2820, 3015, 6016, 149, 16399, 13210, 17609, 2100, 2122, 2126, 2137, 2143, 2147, 2195, 2199, and 10983) to ensure the patient-end and specialist services are more than 15 kilometres apart (by the most direct route by road). Additionally, item 10983 has been amended to re-introduce the inner metropolitan criterion.

REVIEW OF ALLIED HEALTH

· New Diagnostic Audiology services for Allied Health - New diagnostic audiology services have been introduced under items 82300 to 82332 as part of a 2012-13 Budget measure. The items enable an audiologist to perform diagnostic tests upon written request from an Ear, Nose and Throat specialists or for some services, a neurologist.
· Changes to eligibility requirements for psychologists providing allied health services - The wording relating to the qualifications of psychologists who can obtain a Medicare Provider Number and provide services under Medicare has been changed to enable psychologists holding general registration with conditions attached to their registration to provide Medicare-rebateable allied health services. Psychologists with provisional registration who require further supervised practice prior to gaining general registration and psychologists with non-practising registration remain ineligible to provide Medicare-eligible services.

REVIEW OF DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING SERVICES
New MRI Items

· New GP MRI items - As of 1 November 2012 six new GP magnetic resonance imaging requesting items for children under the age of 16 years will commence. The items can be requested by GPs only and performed at all Medicare-eligible and partially Medicare-eligible MRI units across Australia.
· Changes to Medicare-eligible diagnostic radiology services - As of 1 November 2012 there will be a change to all Medicare-eligible diagnostic radiology services (excluding mammography) requiring that the procedure must be performed by a medical practitioner or a medical radiation practitioner who is employed by or who is providing the service under the supervision of a medical practitioner in accordance with accepted medical practice. However, for items 57901 to 57969, a diagnostic imaging procedure may also be performed by a dental practitioner, if they are approved by the Minister under paragraph (b) of the definition of professional service in subsection 3 (1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 and, who is employed by or who is providing the service under the supervision of a medical practitioner in accordance with accepted medical practice.

REVIEW OF THE PATHOLOGY SERVICES

· Von Hippel-Lindau Genetic mutation items - Items 73333, 73334 and 73335 have been added to the Schedule for the testing of von Hippel-Lindau gene mutation

In this section

• MBS Online - Archive News
• MBS Online RSS
• Medicare Safety Net Arrangements