Measures used in the report
The measures used in this report are calculated on a monthly or yearly basis. Monthly statistics are influenced by the number of working days from month to month. The MBS services rate for a given time interval (monthly, annually) is defined as:
Number of MBS services in the time interval / Relevant estimated residential population (ERP) applicable for the time interval.
The denominator is based on the estimated resident population in Australia as at the previous 30 June and does not account for the changing age structure of the population across time or other confounding factors. Note that for the broad service group of obstetrics, the denominator is restricted to the Australian female ERP population.
The benefit paid is the total amount of MBS benefit paid for services performed by a MBS service provider. The fee charged is the total amount charged as contained on accounts submitted by the practitioner to claim payment for the service provided. The percentage of funding of MBS services by the government for a given time interval is defined as:
(Sum of benefits paid in the time interval / Sum of fees charged in the time interval) x 100%.
Statistics in this report use date of service to reflect the period in which a service was provided. It is possible for service volumes to change between releases of statistics due to the late lodgement of claims and adjustments to claims. The last 3 months of statistics are considered to be preliminary as they are incomplete and subject to revision due to claims for MBS benefits still being submitted to Services Australia for processing and payment.
Graphs of monthly data have a smoothing curve applied to better display the underlying pattern over time.