Medical specialist attendances are referred patient and doctor encounters, such as visits, consultations, and attendances by video conference, involving medical practitioners who have been recognised as specialists or consultant physicians. All specialists have completed advanced training, and must be registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency in order to practise in Australia. Common referred medical specialties include: cardiology, dermatology, gynaecology, neurology, obstetrics, oncology, paediatrics and rheumatology.
Whilst many referred medical specialist attendances are rendered in hospital, not all of these are subsidised through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). Common examples of non-MBS subsidised services include:
- services provided by hospital doctors to public patients
- services provided under the Department of Veterans' Affairs National Treatment Account
- services covered by third party or workers' compensation.
This page focuses on referred medical specialist attendances subsidised through the MBS and provided in non-hospital settings. Of the MBS-subsidised specialist attendances, a high percentage was occurred in these settings, such as private consulting rooms and private outpatient clinics. The page reports non-hospital Medicare-subsidised specialist attendances based on the financial year of processing between 2015–16 and 2020–21. It also highlights the impact of COVID-19 on specialist attendances processed to the end of 2021.
