Card cut hits veterans

VETERANS could face health care discrimination unless the Federal Government bridges the gap on rebates.

One Loddon medical clinic says the Department of Veterans’ Affairs will now only refund veterans the full rebate amount for their first visit.

Inglewood’s Adrienne Mackintosh has held a DVA Gold Card since the death of her Vietnam veteran husband in 2001.

Adrienne first experienced the new rebate system when visiting Marong Medical Centre in Inglewood.

Her advocacy has since seen the clinic bulk bill Gold Card patients but she wants the Government to remove the anomaly between DVA and Medicare rebates.

“Gold Cards are given discerningly, in appreciation of extreme service for fighting for your country and often passed on to the widow or widower,” she said.

“When being awarded, recipients were informed they would not have to pay anything (for health care).”

Marong Medical Centre has now decided to continue bulk billing of DVA patients but fears that may not be sustainable in the long term.

“(We) fervently hope that DVA does not discriminate against our veterans, as compared to regular Medicare patients. Our practice has decided to try and wear this loss, but with current general practice rebates, and the Medicare freeze having caused us to already have our backs to the wall, we do wonder how we will be able to keep wearing these losses in the long term,” the centre said.

Marong Medical Centre said medical practices in the area had extensive conversations around adding a “gap fee”.

“We took this hard decision in April

Whisky the go-go as agency shuts

MARK Lacey attended to final bookwork in the minutes before Bendigo Bank closed its Pyramid Hill agency at midday last Thursday.

The long-time agency owner had wellwishers calling as the end of an era drew to close, joined just moments before midday by two bank representatives.

A bottle of Chivas Regal blended whisky and a card envelope were handed to Mark by bank representatives before cash was counted at the Kelly Street premises for the final time.

Pyramid Hill is one of at least 17 agencies being clowsd by the bank. Decreased transactions have been blamed for the decision that leaves the town without a bank.

Geoff and Colleen Hampson were among Pyramid Hill residents to thank Mark for his service through the bank and for the town.

And Geoff is among customers who have now moved accounts to other financial institutions.

Local post office licensee Raeleen

2023, and were one of the last private practices in the region to do so.

“We have been in discussions with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and were informed that medical practices can charge DVA patients private fees.

“We have since found out DVA will not refund the veterans the rebate amount, like Medicare does, except for their first visit.

“This led to DVA card holders not being rebated by DVA , except for the one visit.

“Once we were told this, we took a decision to bulk bill our DVA card holders for the near future, and are now hoping for more clarification around rebates for patients, promised in November.

“This has been done as a mark of respect for our veterans, and we are unable to understand why while Medicare rebates patients, DVA does not.”

Mallee MP Anne Webster said the Government needed to refocus on the priority issues for Australians such as the cost of living crisis which was having a major impact on the veterans’ community.

“The Government has become so preoccupied with peripheral issues such as the Voice, and have taken their eye of the ball when it comes to escalating costs, and cuts in services,” she said.

“The Government has said they will be releasing draft legislation later this year that is a direct result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, established and funded by the previous Coalition Government. While that bill is an opportunity to reform rebates, the Government is able to act now and address the level of rebates provided to medical providers.

“This issue needs urgent attention. The Government needs to stop its dilly-dallying and refocus on the issues that matter to our local communities.”

She questions had been lodged seeking answers from the government about which providers are having to withdraw or scale-back veteran services because of the insufficient rebate – and where they are located. “As of last week, the government was yet to provide detailed answers.”

Ms Mackintosh said the gesture of Marong Medical Centre was appreciated but called on the Government to better honour veterans and end the anomaly between Gold Card and Medicare rebates that had caused distress to Gold Card holders.

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Fletcher said: “It will be tough without the bank in town. If we were all to close at 2pm and not open again until Monday ... that’s what small towns can become when services are lost.”

“The bank’s been a service, an option, a choice and people will miss that.”

While banking facilities are available at the post office, residents now face a $2000 daily transaction limit for each card.

Raeleen said there had been increased foot traffic at the Pyramid Hill post office since Bendigo Bank’s April announcement to close the agency.

LATE NEWS Satisfaction dips to 10-year low

LODDON Shire’s satisfaction rating has dropped to its lowest level in a decade, according to the annual satisfaction survey released late Tuesday morning.

Dissatisfaction with the state of sealed and unsealed roads, planning and building permits and emergency and disaster management has seen approval of council decline among 400 residents surveyed.

The report said: “Loddon Shire Council’s overall performance experienced a (not significant) three-point decline in 2023 and is now the lowest score seen to date.

“This decline is reflected in significant declines on seven of the 16 individual service areas evaluated. Encouragingly, council’s top three performing service areas (appearance of public areas, recrea- tional facilities, and waste management) remain as positive as they were in 2022.”

According to the survey, perceptions of council performance had largely deteriorated.

“This is primarily driven by significant declines among residents living in Inglewood/Tarnagulla (Wards). Performance ratings among these residents are the lowest to date across all service areas evaluated,” it said.

“Restoring positive perceptions in this geographic region will be key. Council should also aim to abate the emerging downward trend in perceptions of customer service – early attention here is warranted.

“Council performs as well or significantly higher than the small rural group and state-wide averages on most service areas evaluated.

“This is a positive result, although council’s performance does lag both the small rural group and state-wide averages significantly on emergency and disaster management and both elderly and family support services.”

Shire CEO Lincoln Fitzgerald said: “Our unsealed road and sealed road network ... were areas of concern for our residents.

“The above average rainfall last year and subsequent flood event in October saw severe damage to our unsealed and sealed road network, which continues to undergo repairs as part of flood recovery.” he said.

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