FOI 5277 IR – Proposed Changes To Certain MBS Cardiac Item Descriptors

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 27 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The Department of Health sought feedback from the Australia and New Zealand Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) on proposed changes to Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) cardiothoracic surgery item descriptors. Email correspondence from January 2022 shows department officials circulating draft revisions to MBS cardiac items for stakeholder consultation, with specific feedback provided on item 38513, where a respondent recommended clarifying that a proposed change should specify the item is "billable once per case." The documents represent internal consultation and feedback gathering ahead of anticipated policy changes to cardiothoracic surgery MBS listings, though the specific clinical or financial details of the proposed descriptor changes are heavily redacted in the released material.