Expenditure on palliative medicine attendance and case conference services

Box 1: Australian Government’s expenditure through Medicare Benefits Scheme

The Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) is part of Australia’s public health insurance scheme. Through the MBS, the Australian Government subsidises the costs of a broad range of health services. The MBS subsidies pay all or part of the costs of these services, dependent on factors such as patient eligibility, the type of service and choices by health practitioners regarding the fees they charge for their services. MBS benefits are claimable only for services rendered by an appropriate health practitioner and which are listed on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (AIHW 2024).

The Australian Government’s expenditure through the MBS for palliative medicine attendance and case conference services provided by palliative medicine physicians or specialists are based on allocating a unique item number to each service, as well as indicating the scheduled payment amount. For further details, see:

The expenditure in this section refers to the total amount of MBS Benefit paid for services performed by a Medicare service provider.

In 2022–23, for MBS-subsidised palliative medicine attendance and case conference services provided by palliative medicine physicians or specialists (Figure 3):

  • $5.4 million was paid in benefits, equivalent to an average of $390 per patient
  • 81% ($4.4 million) of these benefits were for palliative medicine attendances and 19% ($1.0 million) were for palliative medicine case conferences
  • these benefits accounted for 0.2% of benefits paid for all MBS-subsidised specialist attendances ($2.8 billion; Table 4).

Between 2013–14 and 2022–23 (Figure 3):

  • Consistent with the pattern for the number of palliative medicine attendance and case conference services, the MBS benefits paid for these services increased by 33% between 2013–14 and 2018–19 ($5.4 million to $7.1 million) and then declined by 24% (to $5.4 million) over the next 4 years to 2022–23. However, after adjusting for inflation, this represented a 22% increase from 2013–14 to 2018–19 ($6.7 million to $8.2 million) and a 34% decline in the following 4 years to 2022–23.
  • A similar pattern was also observed for the benefits paid for palliative medicine attendances – a 28% increase between 2013–14 and 2018–19 ($4.7 million to $6.0 million) and then declining by 27% (to 4.4 million) over the next 4 years to 2022–23. However, the average benefits paid per patient showed a different picture – declining from 2013–14 to 2015–16 (a 7.6% decline from $410 to $380) and again from 2018–19 to 2022–23 (a 6.2% decline from $420 to $395), with an increase by 11% between 2015–16 and 2018–19, which was consistent with the pattern observed for the number of services per person for these services.
  • For palliative medicine case conferences, the pattern for benefits was consistent with the number of services as well – a 54% increase between 2013–14 and 2022–23 overall ($675,000 to $1.0 million), peaking at $1.2 million in 2017–18. Meanwhile, the average benefits paid per patient fluctuated between 2013–14 and 2016–17 (around $220–$250), and subsequently declined by 24% ($250 to $190) until a slight increase between 2021–22 and 2022–23 (a 4.1% increase from $190 to $195), which was consistent with the pattern for the number of services per person for these services.
  • Meanwhile, the MBS benefits paid for all specialist attendances increased by 38% from 2013–14 to 2020–21 ($2.1 billion to $2.9 billion) and then fell by 1.8% (to 2.8 billion) in the next 2 years to 2022–23 – this was broadly consistent with the pattern for the number of these services. Over the same period, the average benefits paid per patient increased each year from $290 to $335, while the number of services per person for all specialist attendances remained relatively stable (Table 4).

For further details on these MBS-subsidised services and people receiving them, see Medicare-subsidised palliative medicine attendance and case conference services.

For more information on the impact of the COVID-19 on these MBS-subsidised services, see:

Figure 3: Benefits for palliative medicine attendance and case conference services provided by palliative medicine physicians or specialists

Figure 3.1: This interactive bar graph shows benefits and benefits per patient for palliative medicine attendance and case conference services in 2022–23.

Figure 3.2: This line graph shows benefits for palliative medicine attendance and case conference services by service type between 2013–14 and 2022–23.

References

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2022) Impacts of COVID-19 on Medicare Benefits Scheme and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme: quarterly data, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 10 February 2024.

AIHW (2024) Medicare Benefits Scheme funded services: monthly data, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 10 March 2024.

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