Multidisciplinary Care
This term means that all new cases are reviewed and discussed by a team of specialists including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists , breast care nurses , psychologists and your GP. Cases may be reassessed several times during the treatment, when changes occur that warrant review.
This process has been clearly shown to improve cancer survival in international studies .This is also acknowledged by the Australian Government health experts, who introduced a Medicare rebate to cover a multidisciplinary meeting(MDM).
Item number 871 is attached to the service provided by the lead clinician at the Multidisciplinary Meeting (in your particular case). For most patients this is the Surgeon, but occasionally it may be another doctor. Item number 872 is attached to the services provided by other specialists who attend the meeting, who will participate in your management at some point in your cancer care pathway. For most patients this may be one or all of a pathologist, radiologist, oncologist or radiation oncology.
When you receive invoices for these item numbers they are all at the rebate only value, ie. when you submit your invoice to Medicare, you will be fully refunded for that amount and you will have no out of pocket expenses.
The recommendations of the MDM will be fed back to each patient for discussion.