DOCTORS' SERVICES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20618, 20 November 1941, Page 4

DOCTORS' SERVICES

SYSTEM OF PAYMENT REVIEW BY MINISTER (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. “Although some doctors are not claiming direct on the social security fund, many of them apparently are accepting the amounts set out in the Social Security Amendment Act in full settlement of their claims,” said the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, in an interview yesterday. The returns were not yet to hand, he ’■aid, but some estimates in district offices of the Health Department in this connection were as high as 50 per cent. Mr. Nordmeyer said it was too soon yet to give a true picture of the position of the working of the medical services scheme. Many people did not pay their doctor when service was rendered and it was likely that this practice would continue. Therefore, claims for refunds were not coming in to the district offices of the Health Department at the rate which had been anticipated. The Minister said the doctors wno were claiming direct on the fund would probably hold their claims for two or three weeks, or possibly a month before submitting them. “A preliminary analysis of claims to hand,” he continued, “reveals that a number of doctors, in addition to those working the capitation scheme, are claiming direct on the fund and apparently accepting the amount set out in the Act in full settlement or their claims. The number varies from district to district, but the number who were claiming direct on the fffnd and apparently accepting the 7s 6d in full settlement, together with those working the capitation scheme, now brings well over the 100 mark those doctors who are rendering the free service.

“There appear to be more doctors in the country districts claiming direct on the fund than in the metropolitan centres, with the exception of Dunedin.”

Mr. Nordmeyer added that a preliminary analysis showed that there were doctors claiming direct from the fund in iespect of some patients and accepting payment from other patients, leaving those patients to obtain a refund from the Social Security Department. What might be happening was that where a patient had the money and paid the doctor, the doctor was accepting this, leaving the patient to claim from the social security fund and that, in cases where cash was not available, the doctor was claiming direct from the fund.