Treatment of public patients

Over the last week or so a number of concerns have been raised with us about the fact that the insurance cover provided by MIGA excludes midwifery care for public patients.

We have prepared for midwives insured with MIGA to answer some questions about this and to ensure that you are fully aware of the current situation and what it may mean for you.  You can review this communication here.

We will continue to work with the Dept of Health, the ACM and Midwives Australia to try and work towards a solution to the problem.

We fully understand that the advice about what to do in the interim is not ideal but it is really important to understand it is driven by the following:

• MIGA’s policy for Eligible Midwives, as supported by the Federal Government, cannot cover care provided by you to women who are public patients (the reason why is covered in the attached)
• Continuing to provide care to women who are public patients is likely to be in contravention of your registration requirements.

We also understand that it is critical that the NMBA clarifies for midwives whether ongoing support provided to a woman after she has been admitted as a public patient is care for which you are required to be insured.  This is not something for MIGA to determine.  We and your professional associations have sought urgent clarification of this issue.

Whilst there is confusion about this it is important however we clarify for you what it will mean if the NMBA does determine that all or some support provided in a public hospital is care for which you are required to have insurance.

We will keep you updated as this issue develops. Please don’t hesitate to contact Maurie Corsini, Ros Hoffman or Mandy Anderson at MIGA if you have any queries.