Fees

Anaesthetists are specialist doctors who generally set their own fees based on a system derived by either the AMA or the ASA. The fee is derived from predominantly three elements.

1. The type of surgery (e.g. anaesthesia for complicated brain surgery will attract a higher fee than anaesthesia for removing a small skin lesion from your arm).
2. The duration of the operation (e.g. a four hour operation will attract a higher fee than an operation that takes one hour).
3. Your general health and medical conditions. A patient with multiple medical conditions may require more extensive monitoring and other anaesthetic services to be provided compared with a fit healthy patient on no medications.

The amount of the GAP (your out of pocket costs) will vary depending on whether you are in a health fund, and between funds. Anaesthetic practice and technology has improved dramatically over the years (with increasing expense) and Doctors’ medical indemnity insurance premiums have increased as Australia has become more and more litigious. Although it costs a lot more now for us give you an anaesthetic, the Medicare rebate has failed to keep up with the rapid progress that has been occurring, and the health funds have chosen to not meet the gap between the true cost of an anaesthetic given by a specialist anaesthetist and the Medicare rebate.  The rebates for anaesthesia fees from Medicare and the funds are particularly poor compared to other medical specialties such as surgery.

If you are in a participating health fund you may be quoted a “known gap” and our office will bill the fund directly for the remainder of the fee. This will save you going to the  Medicare office etc.

For some patients your anaesthetic and other medical expenses can be claimed as a tax deduction in your next tax return. Please note that every person’s financial situation is different and you should consult your accountant to see if this applies to you.

In some  cases your surgeon’s secretary has available pre-prepared quotes for your anaesthetic fee. If this has not been provided to you then you need to contact our rooms to obtain an estimate of what your anaesthetic will cost. Please do this as early as possible before your operation date.

Some of the surgical procedures are highly variable hence producing a generic quote is difficult. For these procedures please contact our rooms and secretary for a quote. The important information we need to produce an accurate quote is

1. The surgeon.
2. The date of surgery.
3. The type of surgery.
4. Any major medical conditions you may have.
5. The estimated time of the surgery ( if the surgeon has told you ).

An attempt is made to provide as accurate a quote as possible based on previous experience of the same type of surgery . However some surgery can vary a lot in time and sometimes an operation can be significantly shorter than estimated. In these cases your final account will only be for the actual time your operation took rather than the original quote. Similarly if the operation takes significantly longer your account will reflect this.

At all times the quality and safety of your anaesthetic is paramount. Each anaesthetic is tailored to the individual, some patients will require more complex and lengthy interventions for their anaesthetic and others will require a more simple anaesthetic.