Many Australians living in rural, regional and remote areas have limited access to specialist medical services in their local area compared to their urban counterparts. This means they often have to travel long distances to see a specialist, which can cause disruption and delays in receiving treatment, and additional cost to families.

To address this problem, the Commonwealth Government allocated $48.4 million over four years to fund the Medical Specialist Outreach Assistance Program (MSOAP) to help bring specialist services closer to home for people living outside major metropolitan centres.

This program provides assistance to encourage more medical specialists to visit rural areas, providing much-needed specialist services for rural patients closer to home. Specialists will also be able to provide training and support for local medical practitioners keen to improve their skills.

Funds are available to reimburse specialists for the costs incurred in providing outreach visits including travel, accommodation, meals and facility fees. In addition, Specialists provide upskilling to local health care providers and also provide ongoing clinical care between visits. However, it is important to understand that the program does not pay a fee-for-service for the sessions being provided by the specialist. The visiting specialists are therefore expected to bill patients at their fee-for-service rate.