PSR Newsletter, October 2019

PSR commenced publishing a newsletter and case outcomes on its website in July 2017. Prior to this, PSR did not publish a newsletter or case outcomes for many years. The lack of published information had led to concerns that the Agency was not transparent.

PSR have now reviewed both the policy on the publication of case outcomes and newsletter. Submissions were received from several sources including the AMA, medical groups, consumer groups and individu- als.

The revised policy on publication of case outcomes is now on the PSR website. Key changes are:

• Removal of named practitioners after ten years;
• More detail to be provided for s92 agreements and Committee outcomes.

The newsletter will continue to be published every three months. It will address

• A summary of Agency activity on a quarterly basis;
• New appointments to the PSR;
• PSR Panel member training;
• Any important administrative issues for PSR Panel members;
• PSR s92 outcomes on a quarterly basis;
• PSR Committee outcomes on a quarterly basis; and
• Federal Court update.

PSR are now working to upgrade our newsletter format so that anyone who wishes to will be able to sub- scribe to have it emailed to them. This should be in place for the December 2019 newsletter.
 

Agency activity summary for the quarter

In the first quarter of 2019/20 PSR received 31 new requests to review and finalised 19 reviews com- prised of 16 effective s 92 agreements between the Director and a practitioner, and 3 effective final deter- minations following a Committee process.

The 19 finalised matters resulted in total repayment directions of $8,132,680. In 16 of the matters there was at least a partial disqualification from Medicare. The details of each matter appear below.
 

New appointments to the PSR panel

No new appointments to the PSR Panel were made in the last quarter. The PSR advertised for appoint- ments in a small number of selected medical specialties in response to new referrals received from the Department of Health. Applications received in response to these advertisements are being processed.
 

PSR member training information

Training dates for 2020 will be finalised in the next few months so PSR Panel members can put these in their diaries. If Panel members have a particular subject matter they feel should be included in training then please forward suggestions to Andrew Shelley who is planning the training program (andrew.shelley@psr.gov.au).
 

Important administrative issues for panel members

All current PSR Committees are making use of GovTeams for document sharing. We are aware of some teething problems particularly where passwords are forgotten. If you have any difficulties at all please con- tact Zac Pagan (zac.pagan@psr.gov.au) for assistance.