Wednesday 19 October 2022 12:10 AM Dr Nick Coatsworth warns the entire Medicare system is under threat trends now
Dr Nick Coatsworth has issued a brutal wake up call to the doctors responsible for deliberately defrauding Medicare of an eye-watering $8billion every year.
A report published by the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC this week has uncovered massive overcharging by doctors charging for services that they did not deliver that could amount to 30 percent of the entire Medicare budget.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA), which is the peak body representing doctors, has hit back strongly at the claims, which they slammed as 'an unjustified slur on the medical profession' and that $8billion was an 'exaggerated figure'.
Dr Coatsworth said a more 'appropriate' response to the report would have been for the AMA to admit that there was a problem within the medical profession.
Dr Coatsworth (pictured on Wednesday) said a more 'appropriate' response to the report would have been for the AMA to admit there was a problem within the profession
'I think Steve Robson and the AMA, he's the President, have it completely wrong. It is not a slur on the medical profession,' he told the Today Show on Wednesday.
'If I can offer an alternate view as a medical leader, the appropriate response is to come out and say, "We think the number is over-exaggerated but we recognise we have a problem within our profession and we know that the survival of Medicare depends on us cleaning up our own act".'
Dr Coatsworth said low-level fraud was 'endemic' in the medical profession and that there were 'financial drivers' pushing doctors to bill inappropriately.
The doctor said the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) - the government's internal auditor - had estimated $2.2billion had been wasted every year.
Dr Coatsworth estimated for every $12 taxpayers spend on Medicare, $1 was wasted by the medical profession (pictured, customers queue outside a Western Sydney chemist)
'Which means for every $12 the taxpayer spends on Medicare, one dollar of that wasted by the medical profession,' he said.
'We need to sort out what we're doing as a profession, we need to do our bit to save Medicare and not
