Medicare benefits are payable for professional health services. A professional service is a clinically relevant service that is listed on the MBS. A medical service is clinically relevant if it is generally accepted in the medical profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the patient.
The audiology items require a review by the Government to bring them into line with current clinical practice. This includes the need for a review of the rules that apply to existing items and the inclusion of additional items to cover new diagnostic procedures.
Some of the rules governing the MBS in relation to referrals to and from audiologists require review in order to make the system more efficient. This change, if implemented, would result in it being more patient focussed.
It would be reassuring for consumers to know that the MBS items were based on evidence based practice guidelines and were regularly updated to reflect current practice recommendations. This would remove the risk of their practitioner providing an MBS approved service that had been replaced due to new evidence or an updated procedure.