News

Dear Valued patients,

I am writing this today to the patients of FMP Medical Practices to explain our decision to
make major changes that will be taking place across our FMP practices.

Our mission at FMP has always been to provide high-quality health care delivered by a
team proud of our work and community. Our focus is enhancing the patient journey with
the services, skills, and knowledge of our staff we work hard to attract, as well as
providing up to date technology and equipment.

For many years, Medicare rebates have failed to keep pace with inflation and do not
reflect the cost of delivering high-quality general practice services. The Government
froze Medicare rebates for 4 years and then in 2017 began indexing them at just 1.4%
per year. However, the cost of running a practice has continued to rise by 4-6% annually
over the past 10 years. The rebates claimed by our practice must cover all our practice
costs. These include, but are not limited to, employment and training of receptionists
and practice nurses, rent, medical supplies, and equipment purchasing and maintenance,
computer software, practice accreditation and insurance.

We operate as a small business, up until now we have had to absorb increasing costs
and have resisted a movement to charge patients a gap fee. However, to continue
delivering the best standard of care for our patients, this is no longer sustainable.

As of 1 july 2022, all FMP practices will be mixed billing. We will continue to bulk bill
children under 16, pensioners and concession card holders. We will also continue to bulk
bill registered CTG and DVA patients – everyone else will be charged a gap fee as
appears on our website.

This has been a difficult decision for us, and we understand it is also difficult for our
patients. Please feel free to contact your local MP or Health Minister to encourage them
to lobby for increases to Medicare rebates.

We thank you for your continued support of FMP and if you have any questions or wish
to provide feedback or suggestions around these changes, please feel free to write to the
Practice Manager via the link on our website.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your understanding and look forward to seeing you again soon.