Executive Summary:
The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists (NAPP) welcomes the opportunity to contribute
to the Australian Government’s consultation on options to address excessive specialist fees. We
support measures that improve transparency, enable patients to make informed decisions, and
protect access to clinically necessary specialist care. However, we strongly caution against policy
responses that attribute the problem principally to specialist charging practices while neglecting the
prolonged erosion of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) rebates relative to wages, inflation and the
costs of operating a medical practice.
