Role
The role of the Electrocardiogram (ECG) Review Committee was to review Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) plain ECG items that were introduced on 1 August 2020, following recommendations from the MBS Review Taskforce.
We asked the committee to undertake a review of the ECG MBS item 11707 relative to other ECG MBS items (11704, 11705 and 11714).
Terms of reference
The committee’s terms of reference supported and informed its deliberations.
Members
We advertised for expressions of interest via our website and directly with GP, primary care and cardiology peak organisations. We received 20 nominations and the committee Chair, Professor Sally McCarthy, selected 14 members. Members represented:
- a broad range of sector organisations
- individual clinicians
- consumers.
No members of the ECG Review Committee were involved in the MBS Reviews Cardiac Services Clinical Committee.
|
Member |
Background and experience |
|
Professor Sally McCarthy (Chair) |
Emergency Department Physician from New South Wales |
|
Dr John Collis |
General Practitioner from Western Australia |
|
Dr Christopher McCue |
General Practitioner from Victoria |
|
Dr Michael Davis |
Cardiologist from Western Australia |
|
Dr Brett Montgomery |
General Practitioner representing Doctors Reform Society |
|
Dr Steven Unger |
Nuclear Medicine and Cardiologist from South Australia representing Australasian College of Nuclear Medicine Specialists |
|
Dr Liz Dodd |
General Practitioner from New South Wales representing Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine |
|
Dr Simon Torvaldsen |
General Practitioner from Western Australia representing Australian Medical Association |
|
Professor Michael Feneley |
Cardiologist from New South Wales representing Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand |
|
Dr Atef Asham |
General Practitioner from Victoria representing Royal Australian college of General Practitioners |
|
Dr Ewen McPhee |
General Practitioner from Queensland representing Rural Doctors Association of Australia |
|
Dr Aubrey Almeida |
Cardiothoracic Surgeon from Victoria representing Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac & Thoracic Surgeons |
|
Ms Tanya Hall |
Consumer from Victoria (Hearts4Heart founder) |
|
Dr Tony Hayek |
General Practitioner from New South Wales representing Australian Private Hospital Association |
|
Dr Chris Dalton |
General Practitioner from New South Wales representing Private Healthcare Australia |
Meetings
The ECG Review Committee was established in February 2021 and met 7 times between March and November 2021. Meeting dates were:
- 23 March 2021
- 27 April 2021
- 19 May 2021
- 8 June 2021
- 17 June 2021
- 20 July 2021
- 16 November 2021.
Submissions
We published an invitation for public submissions to the review of plain ECG MBS items on our website and through email invitation to GP and cardiology professional bodies. The committee received and reviewed 6 submissions, which are included in its final report.
Final report
The committee finalised its report in January 2022 and sent it to the Australian Government to consider. The report outlined the committee’s recommendations after reviewing high-level claiming data, qualitative feedback and submissions.
The Government provided a response to the report and instructed us to do another review once a further 12 months of data become available.
