Health Check to Benefit People with Intellectual Disability

This information has come from National Disability Services.

A new Medicare rebate for people with intellectual disability who have an annual health assessment is to be introduced by the Australian Government.

The health needs of the estimated 80,000 Australians with intellectual disability are often difficult to adequately assess because of the patient's inability to recognise and communicate symptoms and the insufficient time currently available under Medicare GP items. As a result, evidence suggests that around 40 per cent of medical conditions remain undiagnosed and only half of the diagnosed conditions are appropriately treated.

The new Medicare item, to cost $11 million over four years, is expected to be available to patients in July 2007. This will provide a structured clinical framework for GPs to assess a patient's overall health and plan for their long term care.

This announcement follows the recent publication of Health Care in People with Intellectual Disability, Guidelines for General Practitioners by the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies.

For more information: read the media release from the Hon. Christopher Pyne, Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing here and access the new guidelines publication at Centre for Developmental Disability Studies here.