Do you see patients with skin cancer concerns in your practice? In this podcast, Paul Elmslie (Founder & CEO, HealthCert Education and National Skin Cancer Centres) speaks with Matt Woollard (COO, National Skin Cancer Centres) about the recent changes to Medicare item numbers for clinically suspected melanoma.
Continue reading “[Podcast] Changes to Medicare item numbers for melanoma” →

New Medicare item numbers have been introduced for the surgical excision and repair of clinically suspected melanoma. In this short video, Associate Professor Tony Dicker provides a comprehensive update on the new item numbers that come into effect from 1 November 2022. A helpful clinical fact sheet and skin cancer billing guide are also included below. Continue reading “[5 min watch] Suspicion of melanoma: New Medicare item numbers” →

Welcome to this podcast series, Conversations with Professor David Wilkinson! In this episode, Prof David Wilkinson (Chief Medical Officer, National Skin Cancer Centres) speaks with Matt Woollard (Director of Business Development in Operations, National Skin Cancer Centres) about how to manage Medicare billing and records in a medical practice. Continue reading “[Podcast] Medicare billing & records | Conversations with Prof David Wilkinson” →

If you are in a practice that bulk-bills skin cancer procedures, can you charge any other fees in relation to that procedure, such as a procedure fee or a consumables fee? In this short video, Matt Woollard (Chief Operating Officer, National Skin Cancer Centres) talks about the regulations relating to Medicare and billing skin cancer procedures. Continue reading “[2 min watch] Charging for procedures in a bulk-billing practice” →

As Medicare continues to implement changes to their procedures and billing item numbers, it is important for general practitioners to understand how these changes might impact daily work. For example, the removal of item number 30195 in November 2018 effected many doctors who used this number to treat solar keratosis with a diathermy device.

In this short video, National Skin Cancer Centres Chief Operating Officer Matt Woollard offers his recommendations for using the correct Medicare billing item numbers including understanding their differences between an excision and a biopsy, and holding the billing on excisional biopsies until the pathology report comes back.

Watch the full video here:

Learn more about skin cancer medicine in primary care at the next Skin Cancer Certificate Courses.

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Read more recent research.

In this webinar, Paul Elmslie, Founder and CEO of National Skin Cancer Centres and HealthCert, outlined the essential steps for starting out in skin cancer work, including room set-up, equipment, workflow, billing and management. Continue reading “[WEBINAR] Starting out in skin cancer work” →

There has been a decline in the average hourly income for general practitioners as other specialists see a healthy rise in theirs, highlighting the need for GPs to diversify their skills and seek a field of subspecialisation. Continue reading “[8 min read] Decline in GP income calls for skills upgrade” →

25 – 28 July 2018 | Brisbane 

The 10^th Skin Cancer Summit & Masterclasses saw international thought leaders in skin cancer medicine converge in Brisbane to collaborate with GPs from across Australia. The 2018 program once again covered a broad range of topics relevant to doctors working in primary care skin cancer medicine. The Masterclasses focused on core day-to-day material, as a way to reinforce and extend knowledge. The two-day Summit opened up new areas of study, enquiry and interest.

      

 

Dermoscopy Masterclass: 25 July 2018

The first Masterclass focused on diagnosis through dermoscopy and was run by Prof Ash Marghoob (USA) and Dr Aimilios Lallas (Greece).

Dr Lallas used the concept of false positive and false negative diagnoses to reinforce our diagnostic accuracy. Clearly, as morphology overlaps the distinction between what is a cancer, and what is not, can provide confusion.

This broad concept was beautifully extended by Prof Marghoob through his presentation on difficult to diagnose melanomas. As we all know, the easy ones are easy. It is the hard-to-diagnose that we risk missing!

The session then moved into important body sites – the face and acral areas, which are important because the morphology of lesions on these sites is different from morphology on other sites. If we don’t understand this and know how the appearances differ, then we can’t accurately recognise cancers.

Our presenters then extended these important concepts to difficult to diagnose non-melanoma skin cancers, as it is not just melanomas that can be tricky. And, as always, we finished with a series of interactive cases.

 

Surgery Masterclass: 26 July 2018

The second Masterclass covered surgery of the ear. The ear, of course, is a common site for skin cancer because it is so exposed to solar damage. Ear surgery is important because cosmetic results are very visible to the patient and others. So, it is essential to get the surgery right, cure the cancer, and repair the defect as sympathetically as possible.

Dr Con Pappas and Dr Tony Azzi provided a comprehensive overview of how to prepare for and conduct surgery of the ear, across almost all imaginable lesions.

 

Summit: 27-28 July 2018

    

The Summit program is deliberately designed to be a mix of very practical, everyday material that supports our daily practice.

This year, key examples of these sessions were those on ‘effectiveness of dermoscopy’, ‘why we miss melanoma’, and ‘radiation oncology’. We also ran sessions that we hope will keep you and your patients safe, including ‘what interests the watchdog’ and ‘monitoring tips and traps’.

      

We deliberately moved into the future and sought to explore and speculate on what might be. It is clear that artificial intelligence is already with us, and yet most of us don’t really see what is happening and what might be coming. As educated and interested professionals, it is worth being aware of these trends.

We also like to keep you across what is happening outside clinical practice, in areas that are relevant to running your business. So, our sessions on how to run a successful business, and how others organise their own practices, are always very popular.

 

Skin Cancer Institute Gala Dinner

The Skin Cancer Summit closed with a Gala Dinner at the Queensland Cricketers’ Club. Hosted by the Skin Cancer Institute, the inaugural ‘White Out Skin Cancer’ Gala Dinner donated all proceeds to QIMR Berghofer. The delegates’ generosity and support will make a difference to many lives as we take a step closer to our vision of a world where nobody dies from skin cancer.

 

 

If you struggle to understand the latest changes in Medicare billing for skin services, please view the short video below with Dr Tony Dicker. The experienced skin cancer doctor provides a simple explanation on the key Medicare changes you need to be aware of and what they mean for your skin cancer practice.

Continue reading “Simple Explanation on the Recent Medicare Changes” →

Another great case from Dr David Smith. An 80-year-old gentleman gave a history of a “mole” being present as long as he could remember but becoming more raised and irregular as an adolescent. The recent change was noticed by the patient’s wife and hairdresser.

What do you make of the history and the clinical image?
Continue reading “Case discussion: How would you treat this patient? [24 October]” →