Plans to expand the MBS item numbers for colonoscopy are on hold to allow for better alignment with new surveillance guidelines expected later this year.

The planned changes, based on recommendations from the MSB Review Taskforce, involved replacing current colonoscopy item numbers with 20 new MBS items.

Due to come into effect on March 1, they were proposed to better describe the indications for colonoscopy and ensure appropriate surveillance intervals for people at increased risk of bowel cancer.

GESA advised its members in a statement last week that the new item numbers were now on hold.

It emphasised that ‘the existing MBS items for NBCSP (32088 and 32089) and other colonoscopy (32090 and 32093) should continue to be used, ensuring patients continue to have access to Medicare-funded colonoscopy services’.

GESA spokesperson Professor Anne Duggan, who chaired the Gastroenterology Clinical Committee for the MBS Review, told the limbic the new item numbers would need to align with both screening and surveillance guidelines.

Without pre-empting the recommendations of the surveillance guidelines working group, she said there was a suggestion that some follow-up might be pushed back, reducing the frequency of colonoscopy.

She said it was sensible to delay the new MBS item numbers to ensure they reflected any new advice and covered all possible clinical scenarios.

“We want to improve the appropriateness of colonoscopy and also be sure that what we put out there works.”

She added GESA would continue working collaboratively with the Department of Health to revise and trial the new item numbers and help the system adopt them with as smooth a transition as possible.