ACHIEVEMENTS

MBS items 132 and 133

As a direct result of the AACP’s submission and advocacy, the 2007 Federal Budget included $291.3 million specifically for two major new MBS items, 132 and 133, for consultant physicians and paediatricians attending patients with two or more co-morbidities.

This was a significant win for consultant physician and paediatric practice.

The AACP identified the need for Medicare items that appropriately recognised the time and skill of consultant physicians and paediatricians in treating patients with increasingly complex conditions. The MBS was lacking items for patients with multiple morbidities, and the AACP sought to change this by introducing two new attendance items.

These two items are designed to support you in addressing the needs of the increasing numbers of patients who present with chronic and complex conditions. The new items were introduced on Thursday 1 November 2007.

These were the first new attendance items for consultant physicians in more than 20 years.

Item 132

An initial attendance of at least 45 minutes duration to undertake a comprehensive assessment of a patient with at least two morbidities, and the development of a treatment and management plan.

Item 133

A subsequent attendance of at least 20 minutes duration to review the initial diagnoses, problems and responses to treatment, and to revise the treatment and management plan (if necessary).

Visit Medicare for full item descriptors.

Since these items were introduced there has been:

10,900,381

Item 132’s billed

$2,454,871,439

Item 132 – benefit paid

7,271,381

Item 133’s billed

$830,056,517

Item 133 – benefit paid

Stats from July 2007 – June 2022.

Our members have said these two items saved their practices; and for those working in hospital settings, private practice provides a benchmark for salaries for staff specialists.

Would you like to see the AACP continue to support your

practice and gain improved benefits for your patients?