No, you do not need a GP referral to see a specialist in Australia however, having a GP referral allows you to receive the Medicare rebate (i.e: recoup some of your consultation fees), and allows your GP to send a referral letter with your full medical history detailed, which is essential for Dr Keeley to review. We strongly recommend speaking to your GP prior to seeing Dr Keeley.
Patients who do not have a Medicare card (i.e: international patients), or patients who do not want to claim the Medicare rebate, do not require a referral to attend our practice and will be billed as per our standard rates.
Yes, you can. You can use a referral that is made out to a different specialist of the same specialty / vocation (eg: another orthopaedic surgeon). Visit the following websites to learn more about your rights when it comes to transferring your referral from one specialist to another: healthdirect and Services Australia and NIB.
In clinic
Private health insurance does not cover what is done in the rooms (unless you are an in-patient or overseas visitor with international travel insurance). If you are an international visitor with the necessary insurance, full payment is required at the time of the consultation, you will then be provided with a receipt to claim directly from your provider.
Surgery
No, you are not necessarily required to have private health insurance to be a patient in a private hospital. A ‘self-funded’ patient is someone who doesn’t have Private Health Insurance, but pays for their medical treatment upfront. This consists of the specialist’s fee, the anaesthetist’s fee, the surgical assistant’s fee and the hospital’s fee. It’s the hospital fee which makes up the vast majority of the cost, because it includes theatre fees, accommodation and food costs, hospital staff wages, medications, and prostheses.
Public Hospitals
If you are a Medicare card holder and you are treated as a public patient in a public hospital, there will be no fees associated with your surgery.
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