Medicare Benefits Expenditure on Specialist Attendances per Person

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Primary Care
Country
Australia
Publishing Organisation
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW): Healthy community indicators
Type of Quality Indicator
Outcome
IOM Quality Dimension
Efficiency
Domain
Wait and System Planning / Access

Defining Attributes

Definition

The Medicare benefits expenditure on specialist attendances per person. A claim is classified as a specialist attendance if the item is in the Broad Type of Service group: Specialist attendance (C/200), and the service is not conducted in a hospital.

Numerator

Total benefit paid for eligible claims.

Denominator

Estimated Resident Population (ERP) as at 30 June at the previous end of financial year.

Exclusions

Specialist attendances exclude obstetrics attendances, which are included in the 'Obstetrics' Broad Type of Service group in official MBS claims data.

Use of Risk Adjustment
Yes
Risk Adjustments

Direct age-standardisation

Stratifications

By Primary Health Network (PHN) area, Statistical Areas Level 3 (SA3s), sex and age group in years (<15, 15-24, 25-44, 45-64, 65+).

Collection and Reporting Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods

Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Estimated Resident Population (ERP).

Frequency of Data Collection
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
Reporting Methods
Reporting Frequency
Reporting Frequency in Days
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
No

Source and Reference Attributes

Link to Measurement Tools
Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
No
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
02 December 2025