Overcharging on medical bills and rorting the public health system is costing taxpayers up to $5000 a minute, a health union says.
But the peak professional body representing doctors says the numbers don't add up in a Health Services Union (HSU) report that paints a picture of fraud in the $30 billion Medicare Benefits Schedule scheme.
Leaning on previous analyses, the report estimated fraud and non-compliance rates to range from five-to-30 per cent.
It described one estimate of $10 billion in bogus claims as a figure that "cannot be definitively disproven" due to no effective system to measure fraud and non-compliant billing in the first place.
The report published on Wednesday found about three-in-five medical professionals referred to the Medicare-related watchdog in 2024 were GPs.
But the union said it suspects the watchdog was not adequately investigating specialists and other non-GP billers, representing nearly 70 per cent of all Medicare claims.
"Billions of taxpayer dollars are being siphoned away from healthcare through fraudulent Medicare billing," HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes said.
"It's got to stop. Government and regulators have to hold people to account."
"This is public money. Medicare has to be delivering for all of the community not just a certain few."
The union said upcoding was a common fraud tactic, with medical practitioners inflating consultation times to increase reimbursements.
Nearly two-thirds of Professional Services Review case outcomes in 2024 involved upcoding, while 38 per cent involved incorrect use of GP management plan and/or team care arrangement item numbers.
AAP has sought comment from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
The union, which represents more than 50,000 health workers including in hospitals and pathologies, also surveyed 110 healthcare workers in billing, finance, and compliance.
Survey respondents reported witnessing doctors billing for services they did not provide, unnecessary procedures performed purely for billing purposes and systematic manipulation of billing codes to inflate Medicare claims.
One-in-three healthcare workers said they had witnessed or suspected improper billing practices but only 17 per cent understood how to report Medicare fraud.
Half of those surveyed said they faced pressure to maximise profit from Medicare billing and more than 93 per cent of healthcare workers said they were too afraid to report fraud because of fears of retaliation.
The union also pointed the finger at the medical doctors' group, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) for deflecting and resisting meaningful oversight.
"Too many practitioners treat Medicare as an unlimited funding source, structuring their operations around maximising claims rather than responsible spending of public funds or optimising patient care," the 28-page-report published on Wednesday said.
But the association lambasted the union's claims as "baseless" insisting that it was getting on "with the job of pursuing meaningful reforms".
The government-commissioned Philip review in 2023 found Medicare compliance issues were overwhelmingly caused by the complexity of the system, it said.
AAP has approached federal Health Minister Mark Butler for comment.
