November prediction: 16 new bulk billing clinics for the eastern suburbs

With reporting from the Australian Associated Press.

A dispute between online healthcare directory Cleanbill and Federal Health Minister Mark Butler over the number of bulk billing health clinics in Australia has intensified.

A recent Cleanbill report stated that - contrary to Labor government projections - new federal subsidies starting on November 1 would increase the number of entirely bulk billing clinics nationally by 740, from 1,341 to 2,081.

The subsidies would see clinics that bulk bill every patient earn an extra 12.5 percent on the current Medicare rebate paid by the government to GPs. Clinics in more remote locations will receive an additional loading.

However Labor predicts there will be 4,800 fully bulk billing clinics.

The Cleanbill report was not received well by Butler, who described it as “a headline-grabbing phone poll conducted by a private company whose own website says their data is not ‘reliable, accurate, complete or suitable’.”

What did Cleanbill’s report highlight?

In the eastern suburbs, specific projections included Aston increasing from five bulk billing clinics to nine; Casey and Deakin from six to 10 each; Chisholm from 11 to 13; Menzies from seven to nine; and Hotham staying at 15.

Cleanbill refuted Butler’s criticism of its data. Within its “Terms of Use” it states it “does not make any representations, warranties or claims that the Material contained on this Website is reliable, accurate, complete or suitable”.

“This language … is a standard disclaimer of warranty clause used across the industry,” Cleanbill told the Eastern Melburnian. “Healthdirect, the Government's own healthcare directory, uses very similar language in its own disclaimer of warranty clause.”

The company said it “wholeheartedly asserts the accuracy of the data we collect and include in our reporting”.

Cleanbill rejected Butler's “phone poll” jab, describing its methodology as “the most comprehensive and well-documented independent healthcare data collection in Australia”.