Medicare-subsidised GP, allied health and specialist health care across local areas

How can information in this report be used?

Understanding how people use non-hospital Medicare services helps to:

• inform health policy
• support evidence-based decisions about service planning, commissioning and delivery
• improve understanding of how well programs are working
• identify gaps in service provision.

The information in this report can help Primary Health Network (PHN) organisations and other primary care providers to coordinate care, understand trends, plan and deliver services to suit the needs and demands of their particular area. It also adds to the evidence base about health care use in Australia, strengthening knowledge about the needs of local populations and their use of health care.

Interpreting the data

There is no ideal rate of health care use and this report draws no conclusions about whether a higher or lower rate of service use is desirable for a particular area, nor does it try to assess the degree to which peoples' needs are being met.

In particular, the reported number of people who receive mental health and chronic condition related services from their general practitioner (GP) (for example, asthma or diabetes mellitus cycle of care services) is likely to be an underestimate of total mental health and chronic condition related activity undertaken by GPs, because these services can also be claimed against other general GP items.

Variation in the use of non-hospital Medicare-subsidised services across different groups or regions could be because of a range of factors, including differences in the:

• age and sex distribution of the population in regions across Australia, for example, an area has a higher proportion of older people which may result in higher rates of health service use
• prevalence of health conditions – areas with higher rates of health service use may have more people with complex health conditions
• availability and quality of other community-based programs, services and support outside of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) arrangements (for example, Visiting Optometrists Scheme, Rural Health Outreach Fund or Medical Outreach – Indigenous Chronic Disease Program) (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 2022; 2023; 2025), or equivalent services provided by jurisdictions or other providers, including private health insurance providers for allied health services
• changes to MBS arrangements where certain services may be ceased or amended, and new services are introduced (for details see technical notes)
• incentives arrangement (for example, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's Bulk Billing Incentive Program)
• access to and availability of health care providers.