Medicare Australia collects Medicare Benefits Schedule claims data, which are regularly provided to the Department of Health. Medicare seeks Indigenous status information in its enrolment forms, including the general enrolment application form and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Medicare enrolment form. A Voluntary Indigenous Identifier (VII) was introduced into the Medicare database from November 2002. Medicare data presented by Indigenous status have been adjusted for the under-identification in the Medicare VII database. Indigenous rates are therefore modelled and should be interpreted with caution. Estimates generated by the adjustment methodology for a given period will vary according to the point in time at which they are calculated, as the adjustment factors will be updated regularly to account for the ongoing change in the population coverage of the VII sample. More information on VII data is available at Voluntary Indigenous identifier (VII) Framework. MBS data do not give a comprehensive picture of actual service delivery for Indigenous Australians, as some service delivery (particularly in Remote areas) is not part of these systems. For example, MBS data does not include services provided in the public health system or under other arrangements that do not attract an MBS claim (for example, some Aboriginal Medical Services and state/territory health services). |