CONSULTATION FEES

Stratford Medical Centre located GPs are privately billing businesses, although at times may bulk bill concession card holders and children under 16 during normal business hours – Monday to Friday.  DVA patients are bulk billed. Special interest consultations, such as ADHD assessments always incur a fee.

GPs in Australia are not employed by the government, they are private doctors who run their own medical businesses. The Doctors need to charge a private fee in addition to the Medicare rebate (which is an insurance refund to the patient for medical care) as the Medicare rebate is insufficient to cover the costs of providing the service to you, the patient.

They, and the service support entity that charges a service fee to them, have overhead costs such as staff salaries, clinic maintenance, equipment, accreditation, cleaning, infrastructure, and administrative expenses. The Medicare rebate, which is a partial reimbursement from the government, does not fully cover these costs. Therefore, GPs charge a private fee to bridge the gap and sustain their businesses to take a bit more time to listen and provide quality care to patients.

As independent medical businesses, general practitioners set their own fees. The fee structure below is standard appointment fees for employed GP’s of Stratford Medical Centre. Please refer to your doctors independent web page for their fee structure.

Please talk to us if you feel you needing financial support. We encourage patients to use the Medicare Safety net and PBS medication safety net, and the use of the Chronic disease Care plan to reduce your costs annually. Please enrol with us when Voluntary Patient Registration is introduced, as this will reduce your costs of healthcare further by allowing you to access person-centred government funding packages (from 1 October 2023).

  ***ADHD consultations are billed at higher rates, and certain consultations with various GPs may have a different fee due to the nature of the training required or the complexity of the consultation. Please ask the GP or the reception team for an indication of price. Generally these are $400 for 45 minutes and $300 for 30 minute appointments with Dr Livia Sipetean.

 ***Should your consultation extend over the time you have booked, your fee may be higher, and you may have an increased rebate. Item codes requirements are specified by Medicare and the GPs are bound to item code selection according to Medicare legislation.

***Please book the appropriate amount of time needed to discuss the complexities of your health, as running over the allocated time you booked will cause delays, and may result in a higher fee, or a request to book again to give you the time and attention needed. 

* Please note that all after hours and weekend sessions incur full standard fees and are not subject to any reduced concession rates.

*** ADHD consultations, Occupational or Aviation Medicals, and other  non-Medicare rebateable consultations or reports are priced according to complexity. As these are complex and long consultations, they incur the upfront fee to book, and will have a cancellation fee of the full consultation amount should you not attend with at least 24 hours notice of cancellation given.

Consultations are by appointment, but an emergency will be seen without appointment and triaged with our nurse.