Cardiologists are among the specialists most likely to bulk-bill patients for an initial consultation and also charge lower out-of-pocket costs, new figures show.

The data come from the federal government’s troubled Medical Costs Finder website, which is now accepting fee information from individual doctors including cardiologists after a $17 million relaunch last December.

The Department of Health says cardiologists can input their fees for 23 services including initial and follow-up appointments and a variety of procedures such as coronary angiography, heart catheterisation and stent insertion.

So far, no cardiologists have taken up the offer and the site was displaying the individual details of just half a dozen doctors around the country when the limbic checked last week.

But the site is now displaying updated aggregate Medicare data, revealing 42% of initial cardiologist appointments were bulk-billed in 2021-22.

Of the 58% of initial consults to which a gap fee was applied, patients were charged $245 on average, coming out as $110 after the Medicare rebate.

By contrast, 26% of initial rheumatology appointments claimed under MBS item 110 were bulk-billed, leaving the rest with an average out-of-pocket cost of $155.

The site also shows there were wide variations in the fees charged by cardiologists, with the top 10% most expensive initial consults having out-of-pocket costs at least $186 versus $45 for the bottom decile.

There was also significant regional variation when it came to cardiologist fees.

Initial attendances (MBS item 110)

Cardiologists’ subsequent consultations showed similar patterns, with 41% bulk-billed and the rest having a $70 median out-of-pocket cost (after $68 Medicare rebate)

Bulk-billing rates for these consultations ranged from 54% in South Australia to just 19% in Western Australia.

Cardiologists in the ACT charged the highest fees at $180 on average, according to the figures.

Subsequent attendances (MBS item 116)

The updated site also includes detailed fee information for about 100 procedural items covered by Medicare, including the typical private hospital fees and those covering specialists, anaesthetists and assistant surgeons.

For example, the site shows that for heart angiogram with or without catheterisation (MBS items 38252 and 38218), 16% of privately insured patients had an out-of-pocket cost.

For this procedure, Medicare paid $1000 on average and health funds paid $800, according to the site.

In addition, it says the hospital fees for this procedure were typically $4,200, covered mostly by health funds depending on a patient’s level of insurance.

At a webinar earlier this year, officials stressed they were still hoping to expand participation of individual specialists in the site, arguing recruitment was expected to build with additional exposure.

They also argued there was significant interest from the public, claiming the database was already receiving about 6,000 hits per month.

MBS item 110 (rebate $135): initial consult

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MBS item 116 (rebate $68): follow-up consult

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