Fears registration will be limited to one-day deadline

MEDICAL defence organisations have voiced fears that doctors may have just 24 hours to register with the new national medical board when it begins taking registrations on 30 September.

As part of the national registration and accreditation scheme, doctors will need to register with the new Medical Board of Australia. But while the board will give doctors a 28-day grace period before considering them unregistered, Medicare has not yet agreed to such an extension.

According to Avant legal manager Helen Turnbull, Medicare might consider doctors unregistered the day after, leaving them unable to access the MBS. 

“Medicare says as soon as doctors become unregistered, they can’t claim [on the MBS].”

The Medical Indemnity Industry Association of Australia flagged these concerns in a recent submission to Medicare.

Ms Turnbull also raised concerns over whether the board’s online registration system would cope with the number of doctors if they only had a day to register.