Community & Business
8 November, 2025
No more gap fees at BSMC
All patients at Nyngan’s Bogan Shire Medical Centre (BSMC) will now be bulk billed, following a decision by council to stop charging gap fees.
For the past year around 24 per cent of the patients at the BSMC have been charged between $40 and $62.50 to see the doctor.
These were patients over the age of 16 who did not hold a Commonwealth concession card, and were not being treated as part of a chronic disease management plan.
In a bid to encourage medical services to bulk bill, the federal government has introduced various initiatives from the start of this month. Bogan Shire Council (BSC) general manager Derek Francis the new Bulk Billing Incentive Program would see the BSMC receive between $50,000 and $100,000 per annum if it reverted to bulk billing all patients.
“The objectives of the government’s changes are to support general practitioners (GPs) and GP practices to provide bulk billed care and reinforce primary care as the first point of contact within the health system, and make it easier for patients to access affordable care where cost is not a barrier to access,” he said.
“Additional benefits of reverting to 100 per cent bulk billing will include less administration time and cost, as well as increased community goodwill as 24 per cent of our patients will not be required to make their own payments.”
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