Healthcare Industry

The recent Touchstone report from Cubiko, a practice intelligence platform that integrates with Bp Premier, shows a sizeable shift in the healthcare landscape in Australia. In 2022, the number of GPs that were predominantly bulk billing patients was 60 per cent, but that figure has since dropped to only 26 per cent at the end of 2023, indicating a growing preference for mixed billing.

The Touchstone General Practice Industry Report draws from data spanning 811 practices across Australia, offering insights into industry trends, helping analyse practice performance and supporting informed decision-making in the General Practice landscape.

Despite the introduction of the triple bulk billing incentive in November 2023 leading to a noticeable increase in billings per hour, only one in four practices are now predominantly bulk billing. This represents a steep decline over the two years of data included in Cubiko’s report.

As of February 2024, Cubiko’s touchstone dataset is made up of predominantly 5-9 GP FTE and 75% predominantly mixed billing practices.

Interestingly, the introduction of the triple bulk billing incentive had a small yet measurable effect on the percentage of concessional patients who were bulk billed. This suggests that the incentive is working as expected, but it’s not enough to reverse the overall trend toward mixed billing.

Medical practices have also increased their fees over time, with the average private fee for a consultation rising from $72.92 in 2022 to $81.21 by December 2023, due to ongoing cost pressures.

There has been a slight increase in chronic disease management items, but a decrease in nurse-led billings and no-show rates have slightly increased for bulk billing practices, while slightly decreasing for mixed billing practices.

As expected, online appointment bookings have seen a modest rise from 17.5% to 24% between January 2022 and December 2023.

It’s clear that general practices are shifting towards mixed billing, and as the practice landscape continues to change, it will be interesting to monitor how this trend develops. But how can Bp help you move from predominantly bulk billing to mixed billing?

Using Cubiko and Bp Premier empowers your practice to perform at its best. Cubiko provides vital practice data, benchmarking this data for reporting capabilities to guide business decisions on bulk billing, mixed billing, mitigating risk, and maximising potential practice revenue.

The founders of Best Practice Software have announced their appointment of Mr Craig Hodges as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Dr Frank and Lorraine Pyefinch, who formed Best Practice in the regional city of Bundaberg in 2004, have elected to concentrate their strategic efforts on steering the company at a Board level as Chair and Board Director, respectively.  It is a logical next step for the couple who are widely regarded as early pioneers of the Australian digital health industry, having originally developed Medical Director and then Best Practice during their esteemed careers.  Dr Pyefinch used his experience as a successful and respected General Practitioner, and Mrs Pyefinch her prime business acumen and nursing skills and experience, to pioneer medical software design and develop Best Practice into one of Australasia’s leading and most popular group of e-health products and services.  The company operates successful software products including GP software leader Bp Premier, medical specialist software Bp VIP.net, allied health software Bp Allied, the Best Health app, and upcoming Best Practice Mobile applications.

Mr Hodges first joined the company in 2012 as its foundational General Manager and has worked over the past 12 years in a variety of strategic and operational leadership roles within the business including being the group’s Chief Operating Officer, working closely with Dr Pyefinch as a key advisor, deputy, and understudy. 

“Craig has been an integral member of our senior leadership team for many years and he knows and understands our business, its people, and our customers intimately”, Dr Pyefinch said.  “He shares our empathy for Clinicians and their operational pressures and has helped position our business to best support our users, guiding various initiatives that have reshaped our business and our products over this past decade.  His permanent appointment to the role of Chief Executive evidences our confidence in his vision for our business and how aligned he personally is with our values and beliefs”.

Mr Hodges said he was honoured to take up the new permanent role as Chief Executive, but honoured the legacy left by Dr Pyefinch’s retirement from the role.  He said “Frank really has contributed so very much to the Australasian healthcare community and his care, attention, and positive attitude towards supporting GPs, surgical specialists, and allied health professionals will always guide and influence me.  He is a brilliant doctor and wonderful advocate and supporter of our medical community, and I will be forever grateful for his guidance and support”.

Mr Hodges said he was looking forward to working with Dr & Mrs Pyefinch in their new board roles and felt confident their personal values would continue to be honoured in the care Best Practice demonstrates for its people, customers, and community.  “I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to work for and alongside Frank and Lorraine for 12 years and closely understand their deep care for the healthcare community and that passion for supporting our users will never diminish.  But I will be putting my own unique stamp on the role and our team, and that work commences now.”

Before joining Best Practice, Mr Hodges worked in a variety of financial and strategic leadership roles across the public and private sector and has volunteered his time in a variety of community support missions.  He is a Non-Executive Director of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, has served on the board of a large Queensland hospital and health service, and dedicated his time and efforts over two decades to various healthcare advisory, clinical support, and tertiary medicine training committees and programs.

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The introduction of bulk-billed Genetic Carrier Screening for cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and fragile X syndrome to the MBS in November 2023 was a welcome addition for both patients and doctors alike. It helped raise awareness of this important screening and increased accessibility for Australians who would not have been able to afford it otherwise.

As carrier screening is ideally performed before conception to offer greater reproductive choice, this has highlighted the important role GPs play in preventative antenatal care. GPs are ideally positioned to discuss Genetic Carrier Screening early on, before a woman conceives, during the planning stage of her pregnancy journey. Ordering the screening for patients is easy, as it is hosted as a template in Best Practice, under the name “Genetic Carrier Screening Request Form.”

If screening is performed before pregnancy, this allows more time for counselling and discussion about other reproductive choices, such as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis through IVF, using donor eggs (or donor sperm for CF and SMA), donor embryos, or adoption.

While it is recommended that testing be completed prior to pregnancy so that this essential information is known early, is it still vital that women in the first stage of pregnancy are tested as well. This ensures they have the opportunity to make informed decisions for their family.

Across America, pink, LED-illuminated ATMs can be found affixed to streetside walls. Customers with cravings for sweet treats queue night and day, patiently waiting for their turn to swipe their bank cards. Rather than dispensing crisp dollar bills, however, these ATMs cut out the middleman and serve up freshly baked cupcakes. Open 24 hours a day, The Cupcake ATM has some of the best, freshest cupcakes to satisfy the cravings of sweet tooths; no matter the time of day. To stand out, these magical machines resemble what bank ATMs might look like if Barbie was their head of design.

However novel the idea of these machines may have been at their inception, they have now been around for over a decade. They, along with the now universal self-checkout isles at grocery stores, are just another sign of the rise of the self-service economy. This begs the question: should you enable online self-booking for your practice?

The short answer is yes, an online booking solution provides tangible benefits to both your business and your patients. The long answer is a tad more nuanced, and let’s sort out the details…

Time is of the essence as the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) gears up for significant changes being implemented from 1 March 2024. These changes are aimed at enhancing the accuracy and completeness of the immunisation data AIR holds, and it’s imperative that everyone involved in the process is well-informed.

AIR records crucial information about vaccines administered to Australians throughout their lives. This includes COVID-19 vaccines, those under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), as well as privately administered vaccines such as those for seasonal influenza or travel.

The following changes will apply to AIR submissions where the vaccination provider serves as both the immunisation and information provider: