Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

  (a)   notes that:

     (i)   Medicare has completed audits of 89 dentists who accessed the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme,

     (ii)   a further 540 audits are still underway,

     (iii)   of the completed audits, only 12 were found to be for the non-provision of claimed services,

     (iv)   of the remaining audits found to be non-compliant, non-compliance is in most cases of a technical and administrative nature, whereby the practitioner failed to provide a written quote to the patient or a treatment summary to the referring doctor in a timely fashion, and

     (v)   claims for full repayment of services delivered under Medicare to the community may result in undue hardship to dental practitioners who acted in good faith; and

  (b)   calls on the Government to waive its right to the repayment of debts incurred by dental practitioners as a result of a Medicare audit where:

     (i)   all services claimed were rendered properly and in good faith to eligible patients, and

     (ii)   the nature of the non-compliance was purely administrative in nature.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I seek leave to make a brief statement.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The noncompliance associated with the chronic disease dental scheme involved a clear failure by affected dental practitioners to meet fundamental statutory requirements set out in the Health Insurance (Dental Services) Determination 2007 established by the previous government. The Department of Health and Ageing has no discretion in administering these requirements. In particular these requirements are necessary to ensure that patients are fully informed about the cost of the dental treatment to be undertaken and to assist the GP manage the patients' chronic health condition.

The proposed motion attempts to trivialise some of the non-compliance issues which go to the patients' rights in the provisions of the law. Of the audits conducted, in 12.7 per cent of cases no services were provided. One case has been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and two cases involve treatments being undertaken for patients in nursing homes who had not given permission for the treatment to be undertaken. This is why the government is opposing this motion.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that there have been some dentists who have been audited and found to be non-compliant for legitimate reasons. In some cases services were billed but not provided. They are not the subject of this motion.

A number of dentists have provided services to patients in good faith and good clinical outcomes were achieved with both the dentists and the patients being satisfied with the treatment. Unfortunately, due to simple technical and administrative errors, these people have been caught up in audits, in some cases totalling several hundred thousand dollars. Obviously we do not support any behaviour that involves deliberately defrauding the Commonwealth; in those cases the Medicare officers have every right to pursue those dentists. However, we do not support cases where dentists who provided services—and often bulk-billed patients in need and treated patients who had not had treatment for many years and required urgent dental care—are forced to repay Medicare when both the patients and dentists are satisfied with the treatment.

It is important to note that the basis for noncompliance in these instances has been not providing a treatment summary to the GP or not providing a written quote. Neither of those things affects the clinical outcome in this situation. It is untenable and unjustifiable for Medicare to be pursuing those dentists, largely and most significantly because they have never supported this scheme and they do not want this scheme to continue. It appears to be an effort to undermine the scheme and tarnish the name of many good dentists. (Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I seek leave to speak on this matter very briefly.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given that it is Harmony Day, I indicate that the coalition fully endorses the comments of Senator Di Natale on behalf of the Australian Greens. We would refer anybody to the Senate estimates hearing in relation to this issue in which Senator Di Natale and I partook. This hearing exposed the injustice that this motion and the bill that Senator Bushby has just introduced into the Senate try to overcome.

Question agreed to.