General practice compliance costs
report
General practice compliance costs
Research report
Calculations for the estimates of the base case GP administrative costs have also been released, and are available as an Excel spreadsheet.
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Preliminaries and chapters (PDF 770.7 KB)
Appendices (PDF 2.0 MB)
Preliminaries and chapters (ZIP 19.6 MB)
- Estimates of the base case GP administrative costs (XLS 134.0 KB)
Many Commonwealth policies and programs impact specifically on GPs and the way general practices are managed and operated.
Under the Commission's base case, in 2001-02 the estimated incremental administrative and compliance costs resulting from Commonwealth policies and programs amounted to about $228 million (about 5 per cent of GPs' estimated total income from public and private sources).
- This is equivalent to about $13 100 per GP per year (for GPs who work at least one day per week).
Estimates are indicative only and sensitive to assumptions about GPs' annual earnings and the extra time spent on administrative activities attributable to Government programs.
- For example, if activities such as qualifying for vocational registration would be undertaken anyway, the estimated administrative costs attributable to Commonwealth requirements could be as low as $85 million.
Some GPs report rising stress and frustration associated with completing forms and complying with administratively complex programs, the increasing accumulation of forms and programs, and conflicting priorities.
- However, it is difficult to quantify these intangible costs, and these are not included in the Commission's estimates.
For many programs, GPs receive Government payments that exceed the measurable administrative and compliance costs.
In the base case, three programs aimed at encouraging high quality care — Practice Incentives Program, vocational registration and Enhanced Primary Care — account for over three-quarters of measurable costs.
Form filling by GPs accounts for a small share of the measurable administrative and compliance costs, but is a significant source of stress-related and other intangible costs.
A range of options is available for reducing both tangible and intangible administrative and compliance costs.