Heart test that saves life faces axe
A SIMPLE test that can detect Australia’s biggest killer and prevent 76,500 heart disease events is under threat as experts fight to save it from the federal budget’s Razor Gang.
The check-up is under threat in spite of the fact the number of Australians with heart attack risk factors soared by 42 per cent during Covid and there were 2300 more deaths from heart disease than expected last year.
The Heart Health Check was introduced with bipartisan support in April 2019 after News Corp and the Heart Foundation exposed the fact we had no screening program for the nation’s leading cause of death.
In the past four years, more than 407,000 Australians have had the check but to save $10 million a year, the Department of Health is reviewing the future of the check which was only ever given interim Medicare status.
A coalition of eight peak heart groups met with the Department of Health on Wednesday to plead for the check to continue to receive a Medicare subsidy.
“The tragic deaths of Shane Warne and Kimberley Kitching had given us this momentum, and to just take that away, it’s going to be a disaster,” CEO of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Professor Jason Kovacic said.
Over the past decade the Victor Chang Institute has carried out 100,000 heart health checks at sporting and community events.
Recently the number of people returning results showing they had high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood glucose levels rose from 33 per cent to 47 per cent.
People put on weight during Covid and working from home meant they were moving less than ever before and this was ramping up their heart health risks, Professor Kovacic said.
The number of heart disease deaths is also soaring, according to an Actuaries Institute study.
“In the first eight months of 2022, around 10,200 Australians died of heart disease, which is about 17 per cent higher than was expected or projected,” Professor Kovacic said.
“And then in the face of all that we’re contemplating undoing Heart Health Check testing within Medicare rebate items. It’s amazing on every level, it’s just absolutely crazy,” he said.
The groups also want the test updated to include Auscultation (where a doctor listens to the heart with a stethoscope) to check for a heart murmur.
Listening to the heart using a stethoscope can assist in identifying heart arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation and if it is detected early and treated using anti-clotting treatments the risk of stroke is reduced.
GP groups are not enthusiastic about the Heart Health Check claiming they are not paid enough to carry it out and that they do not get paid to carry out follow-up appointments if a problem is found. GP’s cannot bill Medicare for a Heart Health Check if they have already billed for another more general health check during the same 12 month period.
Last financial year (2021-22) 109,202 Heart Health Checks were claimed, up from 89,873 in (2020-21).