The federal government has attacked the integrity of doctors while announcing a review of Medicare, the Australian Medical Association says.
The Turnbull government has launched a "long overdue" review of Medicare services to bring the system into the 21st century.
While AMA president Professor Brian Owler agreed the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) was outdated, he said Health Minister Sussan Ley had indicated doctors were using it to perform unsafe and unnecessary procedures, harming patients for financial gain.
"This is a direct attack on the integrity of the medical profession.
"It's an approach that undermines the confidence that patients have in their doctors - it's unacceptable," he said.
There are about 5700 items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule, 70 per cent of which have not changed since Medicare began in 1984.
Professor Owler said the review had the AMA's support with the proviso it was not simply a cost-cutting exercise.
He said any suggestion that 30 per cent of MBS items were inefficient or overused was completely ridiculous.
"To suggest that you're going to find 30 per cent of savings through the MBS - the only way you can do that is by cutting services to patients and cutting health funding," he said.
That means Australia will have a two-tiered system where the wealthy can access health services and the poor will be "confined to the scrap heap", he said.
Professor Owler added that in order to modernise the MBS, there needed to be a mechanism to put new items on the schedule.
"Yet today we see the discussion paper released without any ability to put new items on, except for the existing (Medical Services Advisory Committee) process, which is long (and) expensive," he said.
