Percentage of patients with out-of-pocket costs for GP attendances. A claim is classified as a GP attendance if the item is in any of the following Broad Type of Service groups: non-referred attendances – GP/VR GP (A/101), non-referred attendances – Enhanced Primary Care (M/102) or non-referred attendances – Other (B/103), AND the service is not conducted in a hospital to an admitted patient. GP attendances are Medicare-subsidised patient/doctor encounters, such as visits and consultations, for which the patient has not been referred by another doctor.

Number of patients whose annual out-of-pocket cost (fee charged minus benefit paid) for all eligible claims for the relevant service type processed between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017 was greater than zero.

Number of patients who had at least one eligible claim for the relevant service type processed between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017.

Patients were excluded if the sum of eligible services in the year was less than one, or if their annual out-of-pocket expenditure on those eligible services was less than zero. GP attendances exclude services provided by practice nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners on a GP's behalf.

None

By Primary Health Network (PHN) and Statistical Areas Level 3 (SA3s).

Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)

www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/indicators/healthy-community-indicators?areaCode=national&topicCode=primaryhealthcare

www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/b8aa77a2-5b52-46e4-b40b-2991bda98db7/aihw-mhc-hpf-35-patients-out-of-pocket-spending-technical-note.pdf.aspx