The 2023 flu vaccines have arrived! With thanks to Drs Connellan, Jiwane, Germanos, McKenzie, McLearie and Rice, we'll be running our annual flu clinics this year, starting from 29th April.

In tandem with flu vaccines, we'll also be offering COVID boosters to eligible patients, which will hopefully allow us to better protect the general public over what promises to be a potentially difficult flu season.

At this point, we are asking patients to book for the clinics as they're running later in April and would theoretically provide better immunity for the peak of the flu season. However, please feel free to offer vaccines to patients opportunistically if you feel it appropriate! Clinic Days and Dates are as follows:

Provider Digital Access (PRODA)

As a prelude to the coming changes at CSMP to mitigate the impact of payroll tax, most doctors have now registered themselves for PRODA accounts. While many GPs had already registered for the Government's provider access system, some had yet to benefit from the tool. I'll discuss how some of this relates to payroll tax later, but PRODA's more important functions include:

• Creating additional provider numbers instantly (if working at multiple locations)
• Streamlining PBS authorities
• Checking patient eligibility for items such as GPMPs and MHCPs

To help access this tool more easily and efficiently, the stream deck (duress) buttons will be updated over the coming weeks:

By now you're likely to have had at least one patient interaction regarding the changes to fee policy notice that has been distributed to patients. While at least part of this has been to make patients aware of the increasing costs of managing their care (more than simply notifying them of their own costs), the Doctors' Committee recently ratified the following change:

• Patients on Health Care Cards (HCC - green/gold) will now be charged a CONCESSION fee for services.
• Patients on a Pension Card (blue/maroon) will be charged a PENSION fee for services, with the general out-of-pocket (gap) being roughly $15.

At the same time, this notice also made patients aware that with increased fees, they will exceed the Medicare Thresholds sooner, and thus have higher rebates to offset the costs of their attendances.

This is does not mean that bulk-billing is no longer at your discretion - it is, and will continue to be so. However, this does attempt to balance rising care costs for providers without necessarily dissuading patients from seeking treatment. The general breakdown for fees can be found by clicking the button below to open the Fee Table in Teams:

The Elephant in the Room...

Today's Doctors' Committee summary will offer some more robust discussion of this, but as most GPs are already aware to some extent of the implications of the recent NSW High Court decision regarding payroll tax, I won't go into details here.

However...

The following changes will be rolling out by the end of April, 2023:

• GP payments will be made directly to the GP, rather than through the trust held by CSMP. This will require GPs to modify their banking information on PRODA, but also to provide similar to TYRO for the purposes of managing private billings.
• I will begin the process of creating Facebook Business Pages for all GPs as a 'store front' to help reinforce the nature of GP's independence.
• GPs will continue to receive statements of earnings as well as invoices for services rendered; the only change will be that these invoices will require active payment, rather than simply be a deduction from fees collected.

I'll be 'booking' myself with everyone individually over this month to make this process as quick and painless as possible, and to minimise interruptions for you all!

Coming Events...

• Practice Lunch - Thursday 13th April (1-2:30pm) - Our standard meet and greet affair! Bring a plate! This event will be chance to welcome some of the new staff that'll be joining us this year...stay tuned for more info!