STATE MEDICAL SCHEME

Southland Times, Issue 24597, 20 November 1941, Page 6

STATE MEDICAL SCHEME

METHOD OF PAYMENT TO DOCTORS

MANY ACCEPTING FEES PROVIDED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 19. “Although some doctors are not claiming direct on the Social Security Fund, many of them are apparently accepting the amounts set cut in the Social Security Amendment Act in full settlement of their claims,” said the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. 11. Nordmeyer, in an interview today. Returns were not yet to hand, he said, but some estimates in the district offices of the Health Department were as high as 50 per cent. The Minister said it was too soon yet to give a true picture of the position of the working of the medical services scheme. Many persons did not pay their doctor when service was given, and it was likely that this practice would continue. Therefore, claims for refunds were not coming in to district offices of the Health Department at the rate expected. The Minister said that doctors who were claiming direct on the fund would probably hold their claims for two or three weeks or - possibly a month before submitting them.

DIRECT CLAIMS

“A preliminary analysis of the claims to hand,” said Mr Nordmeyer, “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 of their claims. The number varies from district to district, but the number claiming direct on the fund and apparently accepting the 7/6 in full settlement, together with those working the capitation scheme, now brings to well over the hundred mark those doctors who are giving free service. There appears 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 the preliminary analysis showed that there were doctors claiming direct from the fund in respect 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 the cash was not available, the doctor was claiming direct from the fund.