President’s update: digital health, ministerial meeting, NDIS changes and a confusing BBPIP split

Hello, and happy Friday!

What a whirlwind week as I’ve been in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and finally back home to Brisbane. I was in Melbourne catching up with our AMA Vic colleagues which was lovely as always, and also to be a part of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) Health Innovation Community HIC2025 event. HIC2025 brought together a wide range of healthcare leaders and technology whizzes, with the Health Minister Mark Butler opening the event, a keynote from Dr Norman Swan followed by a panel including myself and representatives from Microsoft, Healthdirect and the Department of Health. I spoke about the importance of continuity of care, and of funding the model of care we strive to deliver. Then we can use digital tools to help support that – digital “solutions” only work when there is a clear idea of the problem you want to solve and the outcome you want to achieve. 

Tuesday I was off to Sydney to catch up with the AMA NSW board – always a great homecoming, even if the weather was shocking! Not often does one leave sunny skies in Melbourne for torrential rain in Sydney.

Wednesday was an early flight to Canberra for meetings with the national AMA team in our Barton office, and then to Parliament House in the afternoon for a meeting with health minister Mark Butler along with our VP Julian Rait. The minister was hot off the Press Club floor where he announced upcoming changes to the NDIS, particularly for children with mild to moderate developmental delay and autism. We’ve long heard your feedback that GPs, paediatricians and our multidisciplinary teams are key to early intervention. Our advocacy about this to the minister has been heard, and the support for children and families will return to health through the ‘Thriving Kids’ program. Details are yet to be announced but we’re hoping to see a return of MBS support for 3yo health check, and an increase to allied health support. Of course, your AMA will be there to help design a system that works for patients and ensures high quality care.

With the minister we also talked about the urgency of public hospital funding, particularly of outpatient clinics so patients have choice. Workforce planning continues to be much needed, and we touched on the ongoing reforms in general practice and the work of the CEO forum on private health insurance and private hospitals. This really is a pivotal time for the future of our healthcare system and we’re right there in the thick of it for you.

From Canberra it was back to Brisbane and a meeting with the Council for Connected Care to talk — unsurprisingly — about connected care, especially looking again at digital health and the capabilities to accelerate interoperability between different parts of the healthcare system. This is going to be a huge area of innovation and better wrap-around care for patients.

Finally, last night was our AMA Council of General Practice (CGP) meeting, and there’s no shortage of issues to discuss right now — especially the announcement at the end of last week concerning the 50-50 Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP) funding split for GPs and practices.

While we always welcome more funding for general practice, this particular split seems confusing to say the least. But we have had assurance from the department that services Australia will do the calculations and payments directly to doctors as well as practices so practices won’t have the burden of splitting payments. Government has set some lofty goals for this program and we’ll be holding them to account. We also continue to advocate strongly for meaningful reforms to modernise Medicare and ensure complex consultations attract fair rebates.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to updating you again next week!