Advocacy and compliance update April 2026
14 April 2026
The President and CEO recently travelled to Canberra to continue to pursue the importance of sleep health to the Australian health policy agenda.
“We had an opportunity to meet with medical colleges and societies from across the health sector at an AMA-hosted meeting where we discussed a range of current health policy issues. These included current medical workforce topics and preventive health approaches,” said Jasneek Chawla, ASA President.
“It was also good to hear from engaged politicians and health journalists on the role of the media in influencing health policy change.”
Meetings with parliamentarians Mike Freelander and Monique Ryan updated them on sleep health progress since the 2019 Parliamentary Inquiry into Sleep Health Awareness in Australia.
“With Dr Freelander, we also discussed upcoming changes to be announced in relation to the recent Health Technology Assessment review that may help achieve PBS listing for new drugs for rare disorders such as narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia,” said CEO Marcia Balzer.
“Dr Monique Ryan was pleased to hear that we supported her recent Medical Research Matters campaign and discussed how to keep up the pressure for better funding for sleep research.”
Meetings with an advisor from the Health Minister’s office and the officers from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing provided insights into relevant recent and upcoming health policy priorities. We were also able to share details of this year’s joint pre-budget submission calling for funding for a national sleep health awareness campaign.
ASA President, Jasneek Chawla; ASA CEO, Marcia Balzer
New Medicare item numbers
“The Department is working now to establish the new MBS item numbers for Level 2 sleep studies in children and adolescents ahead of the anticipated implementation from 1 July this year,” Jasneek Chawla said.
“We were able to answer a lot of questions arising from those preparations, and discuss the next steps in finalising the expanatory notes and other details.”
Medicare compliance news
In other Medicare news you might have missed, ASA’s Clinical Committee recently prepared a fact sheet to support members undertaking self-audits requested in relation to billing while overseas.
“Since then, we’ve seen some slightly contradictory advice being received by one member from AskMBS which we’ve raised with the Department’s compliance team,” Marcia Balzer said.
The Medicare Compliance team has also recently circulated information about its health provider priorities for 2026 compliance activities. These include a continued focus on billing while overseas, MBS and PBS services provided via on-demand telehealth platforms, and care and management plans.
Questions on these or other advocacy or regulatory topics can be sent to Marcia Balzer.