Raw Aus Pol

Simple Wins / Australian Red Tape Every step, every clock, every authority -- written down.

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (Health)

Administers Medicare access restrictions on overseas-trained doctors

Administers section 19AB of the Health Insurance Act -- the ten year restriction on Medicare provider numbers for overseas-trained doctors -- and the Distribution Priority Area classification that determines where they may work with Medicare access.

Responsibilities

Operates under

This is a workforce distribution instrument, not a safety instrument, and the distinction governs how it should be assessed.

A doctor who has passed every safety check -- registered by the Medical Board, assessed by a college, granted a visa -- still cannot attract Medicare benefits for ten years unless they practise where the department has classified them as needed. Nothing about their competence is in question at this step. The step exists to direct labour towards places that would otherwise struggle to attract it, which is a real problem that no other instrument in the system addresses as directly.

That makes it unusually clean to analyse. The elapsed time it adds is not assessment time, and the classification it turns on is a published dataset rather than a judgement about an individual. Those are the conditions under which a step can be made faster without changing what it does -- and they are also the conditions under which people mistake speeding up the paperwork for changing the policy. Those are different arguments and this database keeps them apart. See Determine section 19AB and provider number eligibility before registration completes.

Where this body appears in a process

Every point at which Department of Health, Disability and Ageing can hold something up, and why.

ProcessStepWhy it waitsClockTypical
Older person from first contact to first day of home care Notice of decision and priority category decision assessment — 14
Older person from first contact to first day of home care Wait for a funded budget to be assigned registration queue — 189
Aged care wages are raised through a work value case Commonwealth funds the increase decision scheduling — 180
Person obtains Medicare-rebated psychological therapy Commonwealth-state agreement renegotiated decision scheduling — 365
A general practice bulk bills and claims the incentives Register the practice for MyMedicare registration applicant — 45
Child receives dental care under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule Eligibility ends at eighteen decision assessment — 0
A doctor enters and completes general practice training Medicare provider number and location restrictions registration queue — 42
A new medicine is listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Price negotiation with the department assessment assessment — 120
A new medicine is listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Cabinet approval decision scheduling — 300
A new medicine is listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Listing takes effect registration statutory — 60
A person is treated for a common condition at a pharmacy National women's health prescribing trial decision assessment — 0
Older person enters residential aged care Approval for residential care decision assessment — 21
Overseas-trained medical specialist begins practising in Australia Medicare provider number and section 19AB assessment registration queue — 42
Patient receives a Medicare-rebated telehealth consultation Establish an eligible telehealth practitioner relationship registration assessment — 0
Patient receives a Medicare-rebated telehealth consultation Register with the practice under MyMedicare registration applicant — 30
Patient receives a Medicare-rebated telehealth consultation Medicare benefit claimed fee assessment — 1
Person released from prison re-establishes income, identity, health care and housing Re-establish Medicare and medication supply registration third party — 60
Adult concession card holder seeks public dental care Commonwealth funding renegotiated decision scheduling — 350