Cuts to pathology funding as proposed by the federal government will mean an added burden for hospitals, sector specialists say.
The government wants to scrap bulk-billing incentive payments for pathology services (worth between $1.40 and $3.40) which, along with changes to bulk-billing incentives for diagnostic imaging, would save $650 million over four years.
"People who need these tests will avoid having them and that's bad for their health and bad for the state health system as more unwell people are driven to hospitals because they haven't managed to get their blood test when they needed it, or got their pap smear when it was due," Hobart pathologist Penny Yarrow told reporters in Hobart on Wednesday.
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