ACT obstetric fees 'extremely high': Roxon
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Nicola Roxon says Medicare safety net caps will help stop specialists overcharging. (AAP)
The Federal Government says some Canberra obstetricians have massively increased their fees since the Medicare safety net was introduced.
The Government is pushing for changes to the Medicare safety net, including capping benefits paid-out for some procedures.
ACT obstetrician Dr Andrew Foote says the plan will trigger a workforce crisis and he has threatened to stop delivering babies if it goes ahead.
Ms Roxon has hit back at the criticism, releasing figures on obstetric charges.
She says some ACT doctors are charging 80 per cent more than the national average for pregnancy care.
She says obstetricians' fees have increased by 20 per cent in the last 12 months.
"There are some obstetricians who have massively increased their fees since the introduction of the Medicare safety net several years ago," she said.
"This was intended to support patients and not increase the income of specialists.
"We've moved to put a cap in place for those professions and those specialties where there is evidence of those extremely high fee increases since the introduction of the safety net."
Ms Roxon says the caps will help prevent specialists from overcharging patients.
"We're not removing anything from the safety net but introducing these caps and calling on obstetricians to start modifying their fees," she said.
'Patently untrue'
Dr Andrew Foote says Ms Roxon's figures on obstetrics charges are wrong.
He says obstetricians have not increased their fees by 20 per cent in the last year.
"It's patently untrue," he said.
"To be statistically correct you need to talk about what the average doctor is doing not what someone in the eastern suburbs of Sydney is doing and comparing them to what someone in the Northern Territory is doing - you have to compare the averages.
"When you look at the averages it's not 20 per cent at all it's 6.7 per cent is what the average obstetrician has increased things over the last 12 months."
Dr Foote says fees charged by Canberra obstetricians are about 25 per cent higher than the national average.
"It seems that the national average is $2,200 and the Canberra average is $2,800," he said.
"But our fee structure is significantly more than say working in Darwin or Hobart."
Dr Foote says he does not know of any specialist charging 80 per cent more than the national average.
He agrees there should be a cap on the safety net.
"What you should have is a safety net that meets the average charging obstetrician," he said.
"Nicola Roxon met with the IVF doctors and came up with a formula that covered what the average IVF unit charges so that patients wouldn't be worse off.
"But what Nicola Roxon's done - she's done no consultation she's just come in and said 'we know what the right amount is'.
"In fact the average patient will be $1,000 worse off when you look at what the average obstetrician charges across the country."
Dr Foote says the changes will force more people to turn to the public system which is already under pressure and some specialists will leave the profession.
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