It's a promising debut, say patient advocates and public health experts, but the $7.2 million 'Medical Costs Finder' has been criticised for not naming the specialists nor listing their fees | kaubo
that was billed as having the potential to expose the handful of doctors gouging patients hundreds or thousands in exorbitant fees.The Grattan Institute's chief health economist Stephen Duckett said the website was "baby steps, but it's a start. I think they could have gone further with this version."
But the site's greatest shortcoming was its expectation that patients do the heavy lifting to discourage high-charging doctors, he said. "There's no reason why the government could not have said, 'We are going to publish a range of every particular surgeon's fees.' They may need [a] legislation change to do it, but they have that data," he said.Next year, the government plans to enable patients to see the fees for particular specialists and search for out-of-hospital costs.
But its voluntary set-up and the less-than-enthusiastic response from doctors leaves a glaring question mark over the utility of the entire enterprise.Australian Medical Association's federal board Associate Professor Gino Pecoraro
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