PATIENTS face a double whammy from government rebate cuts for cataract surgery, with the publicly owned Medibank Private also halving its member benefits for the procedure.

The nation's biggest health fund will pay out about $290

less for most of the sight-restoring operations from November 1; on the same day patients lose about $310 in taxpayer-funded rebates for the procedure. And other private health insurers are expected to follow suit, because of the widespread industry practice of linking fund fees for doctors to the government's payment schedule for medicos.

Consumers Health Forum executive director Carol Bennett warned that the industry's actions would add to the rising out-of-pocket costs borne by patients. "That will have a significant impact, there's no doubt about that," she said.

"For people who need that kind of surgery, it does force them into the position that they have to find the money or they have to wait, and the waiting lists are very long."

A spokesman for Medibank Private, which insures more than three million Australians, said the changes would be made according to a longstanding funding formula, which caps the fund's no-gap payments to doctors at a percentage of the government's schedule fee.

"We're treating ophthalmologists as we would any other claim," he said.

Author: Siobhain Ryan

Source: The Australian