Private patients are helping to prop up Queensland public hospitals, providing them with extra income in the order of $300 million each year, new figures show.
Public hospitals received an additional $311 million from private patients in 2012-13, an increase of 21 per cent from the previous financial year when the system reaped $256 million.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg released the figures last month, following a Question on Notice from shadow health spokeswoman Jo-Ann Miller.
The data reveals income from private patients in the public system has increased steadily in the past 10 years from $77 million in 2003-04 to $311 million.
The income from privately insured patients in the state’s public health system has increased more than 100 per cent in the past five years amid cash-strapped public hospitals’ drive to increase private patient numbers.
Generous incentives have been offered to entice Queenslanders to be treated as private patients in the public system, including the waiving of special hospital fees and private health insurance excess payments.
The public hospitals have then collected extra funding from the Medicare Benefits Scheme, private health insurance rebates and federal funding.
The increase in private patient numbers has raised concerns public patients will be pushed down waiting lists.
The state and federal governments butted heads last year after the Commonwealth planned to cut its funding for private patients treated in the public system, capping hospitals’ income stream.
Queensland Health commissioned KPMG to report on the impact of the funding arrangements.
A furore erupted between doctors and the state government over Queensland’s Right to Private Practice Scheme, which pays senior medical officers an average allowance of $100,000 for treating private patients in the public hospital system, in return for the revenue they generate for the local Hospital Health Service.
The government proposed private contracts for senior medical officers in response to a 2013 report by Auditor-General Andrew Greaves that found taxpayers were slugged more than $800 million during the past decade under the scheme.
But Mr Greaves found nearly half of the senior medical officers who were paid the allowance generated no private practice income, while more than 90 per cent did not generate enough revenue to cover their allowance payments.
The government ended the standoff last month, agreeing to make last-minute amendments to the new contracts for senior doctors.
Source: Brisbane Times