The NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) wishes to provide advance notice that the Workers Compensation (Medical Practitioner) Fees Order which will commence on 1 July 2022 has been gazetted.
Most of the changes included in this fees order were announced for consultation in February 2021. As no major issues were raised in feedback received from stakeholders, SIRA has proceeded with the announced changes. The 1 July 2022 changes include:
- Clarification of appropriate item numbers and fees that can be charged for different types of pain medicine treatments
- Adoption of the AMA List rate for providing Assistance at Operation and removal of a SIRA-specific rate from the fees order
- Clarification that Assistance at Operation fees can only be charged by the medical practitioner providing the assistance
- Clarification that imaging providers cannot bill separately for multiple MRIs performed over more than one day under one medical practitioner request for MRI services.
- Additional minor changes to existing definitions or words, and to provide consistency with wording in other fees orders.
Additional information
A summary of the changes to the medical practitioner fees order commencing on 1 July 2022 can be found here.
The fees order is available at page 48 of the NSW Government Gazette No 634, dated Friday 10 December 2021 which is available on the NSW Legislation website here.
Please note: The changes have been made but will not commence until 1 July 2022 to provide certainty and sufficient notice for insurers and medical practitioners (and other parties such as practice software providers) to make the necessary changes to their systems.
The Workers Compensation (Medical Practitioner Fees) Order 2021 No 2 which commenced on 1 December 2021 remains in force. See the SIRA website for current, in-force fees orders.
Any enquiries should be directed to SIRA at contact@sira.nsw.gov.au or 13 10 50.