If you or your children have a chronic condition, managing healthcare expenses can become significantly more costly. In that case, finding a general doctor nearby who offers affordable services can be a daunting task. This situation requires careful planning and resourcefulness to ensure that you and your family receive the necessary medical care without breaking the bank.
To remediate this, Australia facilitates access to affordable healthcare through Medicare. This program allows doctors to bulk bill this governmental body. Then, you can walk out of a medical procedure having paid nothing or close to it.
In this blog, you’ll explore subsidized healthcare in Australia and discover how you can access bulk billing gp near me.
What Is Bulk Billing and Why Is It Affordable?
Bulk billing refers to the way doctors bill the cost of treatment and consultations through Medicare. Rather than giving you a single bill for your visit and treatment, they submit multiple bills to Medicare and may give you an instant script online.
Then, Medicare pays out benefits based on a set of pre-agreed prices from schemes. Among the schemes that Medicare uses to give more affordable prices there is the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which reduces the cost of prescribed medication. Therefore, if you have a valid Medicare card a doctor using this payment method won’t charge you.
However, if the cost exceeds the schemes you’ll partially pay out-of-pocket. Nevertheless, with bulk billing your healthcare costs are always lower since they subsidize treatments, making it more affordable. Plus, you can even claim online some of the money you paid for non-bulk billed medical treatments.
What Does Bulk Billing Cover?
Through Medicare, you can access the following free or subsidized medical services:
- Visits and Consultations: Bulk billing can reduce the cost of seeing a general doctor and specialist in person or through telehealth services.
- Scans and Tests: You can access free or lower-priced screenings such as blood, urine, hearing, and eye tests.
- Mental Health Treatment: With this billing method you can reduce the cost of your consultations. Then, Medicare can cover some or the totality of your therapy and medication costs including pregnancy counseling.
- Surgeries: You can lower the cost of some medical procedures conducted by a doctor via bulk billing. In particular, you can use this payment for cleft and craniofacial conditions treatments.
- Aids: With this billing method, you can reduce or avoid the cost of continence and stoma appliances.
- Prescribed Medicine: When you receive a list of medications to treat you from your doctor, you can reduce their cost through Medicare.
- Chronic Disease Management: You can subsidize the cost of the plan you devise with your doctor or specialist to manage a disease or condition that lasts longer than 6 months.
Though bulk billing is widely used in Australia, Medicare doesn’t cover the following services:
- Hearing Aids: Though bulk billing may cover your hearing test, you will have to pay for the aids you choose to buy.
- Most Dental Procedures: Though some dental surgeries and treatments are covered by Medicare, you should confirm with the dentist whether they can bulk bill this specific treatment.
- Cosmetic Surgeries: Medicare doesn’t cover any cosmetic procedures, hence why doctors don’t reduce this type of treatment.
- Ambulance Ride: You can only pay for this type of emergency service through private insurance or out-of-pocket.
- Glasses and Contacts: Most eye treatments outside of eye tests aren’t covered by Medicare.
Where to Find GPs that Bulk Bill
To benefit from the lower prices of medical services through Medicare, you need to seek out a bulk-billing doctor. You can find a nearby health practitioner who’ll bill Medicare directly by searching the following:
Online Sources
The quickest way to find a doctor who’ll bill your universal insurance is to use online sources like service-based websites. These sources allow you to search for specific types of health practitioners such as general doctors. Then, you can narrow down your search to doctors who accept bulk billing in your neighborhood. In particular, you can use the following online sources:
- 13CURE
- PrimeMedic
- Healthdirect
- Health Engine
- HotDoc
Referrals
You can ask your current general doctor to recommend you to another doctor in the area who does bulk bills. Alternatively, you could request your family and coworkers for their recommendations.
Centres and Services
If you want to visit a doctor who bulk bills, you should first look at the health practices near you. These centers are more likely to have doctors who offer this payment method:
- Community Health Centres
- General Practice Clinics
- Aboriginal Health Services
- Priority Primary Care Centres
Conclusion
Bulk billing is an affordable option for all in Australia who have a Medicare card, reducing your healthcare spending. It’s. It covers medical treatments, tests, procedures, and even some aids.
To find a doctor who’ll bill Medicare directly, you can use online sources such as 13CURE. However, if the doctor’s price exceeds Medicare prices you’ll need to pay part of the costs of your treatment – which is still cheaper than if you didn’t have any insurance. Therefore, if you have a Medicare card use the above information to seek cheaper services.
