AIHW - Medicare Benefits Schedule Statistics - GP Attendances and Associated Medicare Benefits Expenditure (%) (SA3) 2010-2017

This dataset presents the footprint of the percentage of general practitioner (GP) attendances and associated Medicare benefits expenditure per person. GP attendance has been calculated with the total services from eligible claims (excluding any bulk-billed incentive items or other top-up items), divided by the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) as at 30 June 2016. GP expenditure has been calculated with the total benefit paid for eligible claims, divided by the ERP as at 30 June 2016. The data spans the financial years of 2010-2017 and is aggregated to Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3) geographic areas from the 2011 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).

The data is sourced from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) claims data, which are administered by the Australian Government Department of Health. These claims data are derived from administrative information on services that qualify for a Medicare benefit under the Health Insurance Act 1973 and for which a claim is processed by the Department of Human Services.

For further information about this dataset visit the data source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - Medicare Benefits Schedule GP and Specialist Attendances and Expenditure in 2016-17 Data Tables.

Please note:

• AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

• MBS claims data do not include services that were provided free of charge to public patients in hospitals or were subsidised by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, compensation arrangements or through other publicly funded programs including jurisdictional salaried GP services provided in remote outreach clinics.

• GP attendances are Medicare benefit-funded patient/doctor encounters, such as visits and consultations, for which the patient has not been referred by another doctor. GP attendances do not include services provided by practice nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners on a GP's behalf.

• GP after-hours attendances are Medicare benefit-funded after-hours patient/doctor encounters, such as visits and consultations, for which the patient has not been referred by another doctor. They include urgent and non-urgent attendances.

• Expenditure on GP/specialist attendances comprises MBS funding for patient/doctor encounters. Expenditure is reported unadjusted for inflation.

• Bulk-billing is an arrangement in which a medical practitioner sends the bill directly to Medicare, so the patient pays nothing. Also known as direct billing.

• Age-standardisation allows fairer comparisons to be made between areas by accounting for variation in the age of populations within each area. This adjustment is important because the rates of many health conditions and health service use vary with age.