Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Health has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) The Department of Health and Ageing does not hold this data.

(2) The below table shows the number of services and benefits paid by month under the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme since commencement (1 November 2007 to 30 September 2012).

1 Based on the date the claim was processed through Medicare.

2 A 'service' is a Medicare item number. Each visit to the dentist may result in many individual 'services' being billed.