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• The seemingly endless discussions among optometrists about fees for their services, particularly when it comes to Medicare, miss one vital point. When negotiations took place in the early 1970s for optometry-services fees to be included under the then Medibank health scheme, one thing the government of the day was adamant about was that those optometrists who signed up to become providers (the vast majority) under Medibank (it was the same when Medicare came in some years later), could not charge any more than Medicare Benefits Schedule fees for services they provided. The AOA negotiators tried hard to have the government let optometrists do the same as medical practitioners – i.e. charge whatever they liked for all services, with a benefits still payable no matter what fee was charged – but the government wouldn’t be in it, however it did decree at the same time that optometrists could charge whatever they liked for services that did not qualify for Medicare benefits. And that’s the position today. Not exactly rocket science is it, but something that many don’t seem to be able (or willing) to grasp. There’s no reason why fees for services falling outside Medicare cannot be sky high (some are already), with the market – i.e. patients/clients/consumers – left to decide if they are reasonable and worthwhile paying. The only proviso is that there is due advice beforehand of the fee(s) that will be charged and that no Medicare benefit will be payable. •As the nation works itself into a lather over the federal government’s $38-million advertising blast promoting its decision to impose a super tax on mining companies, it might be worth putting that advertising expenditure into some sort of context. Yes, $38 million isn’t exactly chicken feed, but it pales into insignificance when compared to advertising expenditure during former prime minister ‘Honest John’ Howard’s reign: $120 million promoting Work Choices and a whopping $420 million extolling the virtues of the GST! • If you think you’re paying too much rent for your retail-business premises, particularly in Sydney, you may well be right. According to new figures from real estate giant CB Richard Ellis, prime retail rents in the March quarter were $US568 in Melbourne and $668 in Brisbane, with Paris scoring $791, London $861, Hong Kong $974 and Sydney $1155, topped only by New York at $1725! • NSW education and training minister Verity Firth’s department continues to deny that unflued gas heaters in classrooms are giving off indoor air pollution at “levels over that considered safe for human exposure”, which was stated in a ministerial briefing from her department. But the ultimate bone-headed explanation for the lack of action by the minister or her department was that all is OK if the unflued heaters are used “when doors and windows are open”. Brilliant. Schoolkids at, say, Cooma or Armidale and any number of schools in country NSW, let alone metro areas, would no doubt find that comforting in the middle of winter. •A pharmacist near our office has been serving the community for over 25 years, before that doing the same in country New South Wales. I asked him what he thought of the new national registration system coming into effect on 1 July. He is less than impressed, saying he would not be complying with the CPD requirement for maintaining his registration because over the years he had attended many CPD sessions and in the majority of instances came away feeling he had gained little if anything from it as the topics were pie-in-the-sky and of little use in a pharmacy. So he is going to let his registration lapse, rather than have to put up with any more tiresome CPD presentations. |
“It’s not that I reckon I know it all,” he said to me. “It’s because the presentations are so out of touch with reality and it’s just not worth wasting time listening to them.” What a waste of a man greatly respected in the community. All because of the CPD nonsense decided upon by the lofty-sounding Council of Australian Government and its collection of health bureaucrats. •Five British optical bodies are uniting to form a confederation to put their views as well as those of practitioners and consumers, although how the latter’s views will be looked after has not been spelt out yet. The confederation will be comprised of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians, The Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers, the Association of Optometrists, the Federation of Manufacturing Opticians and the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians. It seems a good idea, but time will tell. Could it happen here? The last attempt at formal co-operation between the industry and optometry was between the Optical Distributors and Manufacturers Association and the Australian Optometrical Association (now Optometrists Association Australia) in the 1970s, which consisted of a ‘sweetheart deal’ designed to generate funds via levies imposed by ODMA members on their customers and largely handed over to the AOA to promote eye care and optometry in particular. But it all came crashing down after serious disagreements over where and how the funds should be spent, the final parting of the way being acrimonious. It didn’t come to swords or pistols at dawn, but it was close to that. Not one of the better performances by all involved. 21 May 2010 • The federal opposition, via finance spokesman Joe Hockey, says it will sell Medibank Private health insurance if it wins the forthcoming election. Really? That makes it the third election it goes into saying it will so just that. If you can find an accommodating bookie, put your house on the sale never eventuating. 20 May 2010 • The federal government has announced it will provide $5.4 million for 11 chemotherapy units for treating cancer patients in South Australia. Let’s hope it’s a better deal than when a cancer-treating system was opened in Darwin by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd no less, accompanied by euphoric press releases, brass bands, letting loose white doves and balloons, and all of the other rah-rah that accompanies such events. Yes, the Darwin system is magnificent. The only problem is there were no suitably-trained staff on hand to drive it. 20 May 2010 •This year’s Southern Regional Congress and Trade Expo was held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, which ‘The Fountain of All Knowledge and Wisdom’, in between babbling on about its ‘all-singing, all-dancing crews’ … ‘jetting into Melbourne for the event’ (gee, isn’t that impressive; just imagine, being a jetsetter), had a go at describing the architecture of the venue, describing it as ‘art deco’. Art deco? Nothing like it. Try post modern. Oh yes, attendees were also warned: ‘Watch out for our cameras and reporters – we’re everywhere!’ That’s odd; the first day of the congress there was one bloke driving a camera and a lady with him, presumably to take notes. Hardly ‘everywhere’. 17 May 2010 • First it was the Brien Holden Vision Institute, now the Liberal Party is talking about establishing the John Howard Institute. Is there no end to it all? 16 May 2010 |
