Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enjoy long and healthy lives.

Close the Gap in life expectancy within a generation, by 2031.

Rates of accessing/utilisation of health services (General practitioner (GP) visits, health assessments (Medicare Benefit 715), chronic disease care items (Team Care arrangement and GP management plan))

There are four measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 is the rate of GP visits, defined as:

Numerator — number of non-referred GP services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

and is presented as a rate per 1000 people.

Measure 2 is the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-specific health checks or assessments, by assessment locations (health facility and residential aged care, and telehealth), defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had MBS health checks/assessments that are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-specific (MBS items 715, 228, 92004, 92016, 93470, 92011, 92023, 93479), by assessment locations

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

and is presented as a rate per 1000 people.

Measure 3 is the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-specific health checks or assessments, by location of assessment (health facility and residential aged care, and telehealth), defined as:

Numerator — number of MBS health checks/assessments that are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-specific (MBS items 715, 228, 92004, 92016, 93470, 92011, 92023, 93479), by location of assessment

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

and is presented as a rate per 1000 people.

Measure 4 is the rate of chronic disease care items (under Team Care Arrangements (TCAs) and GP Management Plans (GPMPs), defined as:

Numerator — number of MBS services claimed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (separately for TCAs and GPMPs)

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

and is presented as a rate per 1000 people.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

8 March 2023

Driver

For all measures, a high or increasing proportion is generally desirable as indicates greater access to services, but access to services should be considered in the context of population need.

Numerator (all measures)

Name: Medicare data

Frequency: Annual (revised data for 2016-17 to 2020-21 included in the March 2023 Dashboard update – see Data quality considerations for further information)

Documentation (links): http://www.mbsonline.gov.au/internet/mbsonline/publishing.nsf/Content/Home

Denominator (all measures)

Name: Estimates and projections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

Frequency: Annual (data revised on a five-yearly basis)

Documentation: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-and-projections-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians

Numerator (measures 1 and 4)

Data are not currently available.

Numerator (measures 2 and 3)

Provider name: Department of Health

Provider area: MBS Analytics Section

Denominator (all measures)

Provider name: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Provider area: Demography

Measures 1 and 4

Data not available for reporting against these measures (see Future Reporting below for further information).

Measures 2 and 3

2016-17

Measures 1 and 4

Data not available for reporting against these measures (see Future Reporting below for further information).

Measures 2 and 3

2021-22

Measures 1 and 4

Data not available for reporting against these measures (see Future Reporting below for further information).

Measures 2 and 3

State and territory and Australia, by location of assessment

Measures 2 and 3

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 1000

The MBS data does not include services:

• rendered free-of-charge in recognised hospitals
• that qualify for a benefit under the Department of Veterans' Affairs National Treatment Account
• rendered under an entitlement conferred by legislation other than the Health
• Insurance Act
• rendered for insurance or employment purpose
• for health screening
• conducted through state and territory community-controlled health centres

Counting rules

The reference period is the Date-of-Service (DOS), using data processed to June the following year. Any claims processed after the following financial year are not counted. For example, for 2016-17 any claims processed after 30 June 2018 and provided during 2016-17 have not been counted.

Data by geographic location is based on the patient’s geographic location which is determined using their Medicare enrolment address at the DOS. Unallocated patients are included in the Australian total.

GP services are episodes of care and include both physical visits and telehealth services.

Measure 2

Counts of people are reported for the following locations:

• Health facility: MBS item 715 (introduced 1 May 2010) and MBS item 228 (introduced on 1 July 2018).
• Telehealth: MBS items 92004, 92011, 92016 and 92023 (introduced 30 March 2020). MBS items 92016 and 92023 were removed on 30 June 2021.
• Residential Aged Care: MBS items 93470 and 93479 (introduced 10 December 2020)

As a person can have multiple assessments at different assessment locations in a given year, the sum of people across assessment locations may be greater than the total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had health checks or assessments.

Measure 3

Subtotals are reported by location of health assessment: health facility, telehealth and residential aged care.

Denominator (measures 2 and 3):

Estimated population as at 31 December:

• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is calculated from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population estimates and projections using the average of 30 June at the start and end of the financial year (series B).
• The non-Indigenous population is calculated by subtracting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population from the total population.

MBS data do not give a comprehensive picture of actual service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as some service delivery (particularly in remote areas) is not covered fully under the Medicare system. For example, MBS data do 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/ACCHOs and state/territory health services).

In the March 2023 update, data were revised for NT, SA and WA. The revision affected the geographic distribution of a portion of patients and does not affect the total for Australia.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-specific Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) items began in 2020-21 and do not have enough volume to be reported on their own so these are combined with the Health facility items from that reporting year. Prior to 10 December 2020, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in RACFs had been able to access non-Indigenous specific health assessments performed by GPs and other medical professionals.

Data for measures 1 and 4 are planned for reporting as part of the next Dashboard update, using weighted-VII data provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. This will be revised once the Commonwealth Department of Health approve the Health and Aged Care Indigenous Identifier (HACII) for use. The Department has advised that the method of identifying Indigenous status in Medicare data is currently transitioning from the Voluntary Indigenous Identifier (VII) to the HACII. The Department no longer provides data based on the VII, and the HACII is in the process of clearance consultation and validation and is not anticipated to be finalised in time for data provision for the June 2023 update.

Additional disaggregations required for future reporting:

• Remoteness areas
• Socioeconomic status of the locality
• Gender