NEWS Patients wait for rebate

LEAKED Medicare documents have revealed patients face long delays for cash claims after the Turnbull Government outsourced processing to new centres and closed Medicare shopfronts.

The changes could leave patients undergoing expensive treatment including IVF thousands of dollars out of pocket for weeks and will also affect big claims for breast prosthetics that previously had a threeday turnaround.

But the Government insists only 20 per cent of claims not lodged online face longer wait periods.

Whistleblower public servants have come forward to warn patients can expect an end to face-to-face claims and claim they have been banned from telling patients that their Medicare claims will be sent off site for processing.

“We were told yesterday in a team huddle that by December there will no longer be any face-to-face Medicare services,’’ he said.

“These are the same service providers who send people into the offices as they don’t process the refunds. Apparently we won’t even have a Medicare dropbox, the little old ladies will have to fill in a form and post it and we know how much mail already goes missing.”

Human Services Minister Alan Tudge insisted services for people unable to use digital services will remain the same.

“82 per cent of claims lodged manually at a service centre are processed within 10 days, this time frame will not be affected,” he said.

“There has been a huge reduction in demand for face-toface claiming so we are consolidating ‘ back of house’ processing work.

“Nationally, 96 per cent of all Medicare claims are lodged electronically – this is saving time for millions of Australians who no longer have to visit a service centre to claim.”

Health Minister Sussan Ley’s spokeswoman said: “(Neither) the Department of Health nor Minister Ley have anything to do with the running of the payments systems for Medicare, Centrelink, etc – this is handled in the Department of Human Services.”