Medicare Benefits Schedule - Note PR.6.1

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Category 6 - PATHOLOGY SERVICES

PR.6.1

Episode Cone

The episode cone is an arrangement, described in Rule 18, which effectively places an upper limit on the number of items for which Medicare benefits are payable in a patient episode.  This cone only applies to services requested by general practitioners for their non-hospitalised patients.  Pathology services requested for hospital in-patients, or ordered by specialists, are not subject to these coning arrangements.

When more than 3 items are requested by a general practitioner in a patient episode, the benefits payable will be equivalent to the sum of the benefits for the three items with the highest Schedule fees.  Rule 18 provides that for the two items with the highest Schedule fees, Medicare benefits will be payable for each item.  The remaining items are regarded as one service for which the benefit payable will be equivalent to that for the item with the third highest Schedule fee.  Where items have the same Schedule fee, their item numbers are used as an artificial means to rank them.

 The episode cone will apply even when the pathology services in a patient episode are performed by 2 or more Approved Pathology Authorities, with the exception of the services listed below.

 The following items are not included in the count of the items performed when applying the episode cone:

(i)         all the items in Groups P10, P11, P12 and P13;

(ii)        Cervical Screening (items 73070, 73071, 73072, 73074, 73075, 73076);

(iii)       all the items detailed at Rule 18 (e) (items 65079, 65082, 65157, 65158, 65166, 65180, 65181, 66606, 66609, 66639, 66642, 66651, 66652, 66663, 66666, 66696, 66697, 66714, 66715, 66723, 66724, 66780, 66783, 66789, 66790, 66792, 66804, 66805, 66816, 66817, 66820, 66821, 66826, 66827, 69325, 69328, 69331, 69379, 69383, 69400, 69401, 69451, 69500, 69489, 69492, 69497, 69498, 71076, 71090, 71092, 71096, 71148, 71154, 71156, 71169, 71170, 73309, 73312, 73315, 73318);

(iv)       supplementary test for Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C (item 69484); and

(v)        the carbon-labelled urea breath test to confirm or monitor Helicobacter pylori (item 66900).


Legend

  • Assist - Addition/Deletion of (Assist.)
  • Amend - Amended Description
  • Anaes - Anaesthetic Values Amended
  • Emsn - EMSN Change
  • Fee - Fee Amended
  • Renum - Item Number Change (renumbered)
  • New - New Item
  • NewMin - New Item (previous Ministerial Determination)
  • Qfe - QFE Change