Yvonne PerkinsToday I posted a letter. It fell with a clunk into an empty Australia Post letter box.
Why did I send a letter in this day and age? It is because Medicare still uses cheques. This scheme is called the Pay Doctor Via Claimant (PDVC) scheme and works something like this:
1. Doctor provides a service and the patient pays for the service including the doctor's gap fee.
2. Medicare mails (!!!) a cheque (!!!!) written to the name of the doctor. They mail this cheque to the doctor's patient (!!!), not directly to the doctor.
3. The legislators who devised this scheme years ago hoped that the patient would be good enough to then put the cheque into a new envelope and post the cheque to the doctor or otherwise give it to them!!! They hoped that this person is not a young person who has never seen a cheque, has no idea what it is, and just bins another piece of paper without really thinking about it. The legislators of yore thought that patients have a life mercifully low in life admin, working (or looking for a job), free of family care responsibilities and loads of free time to have the spare capacity to remember to do Medicare's job free of charge and mail the cheque. I am guessing the legislators of yore subconsciously assumed that the wife would be living a life of leisure with plenty of spare time and energy to do this task.
4. The legislators of yesteryear thought that it is a great use of the time of the admin staff of doctor's to find a bank branch (!!!) and bank the cheque. They thought that it is a great use of the time of the admin staff to reconcile services provided to patients and Medicare cheques received, then follow up every patient who may have forgotten to forward the cheque. The historic legislators thought that this scheme will thwart the dastardly doctors who seek to rip off Medicare.
Because of this convoluted scheme, Medicare has then had to create another scheme called the 90 Day Pay Doctor Scheme, where a doctor can apply for a cheque to be cancelled if it has not been sent to them by the patient etc. I kid you not: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/90-day-pay-doctor-cheque-scheme
Most Australians stopped using cheques years ago and are just waiting for the Australian government to discover that electronic banking is more efficient for everyone. The Australian federal government is hoping that by 30/6/2028 government services will no longer use cheques.
In 2025, the only one who really benefits from this scheme is probably Australia Post. I agree that retaining snail mail services has merits, even though less than 3% of letters are sent by individuals: https://theconversation.com/australia-post-wants-to-charge-more-for-stamps-next-year-heres-why-it-has-to-keep-letters-alive-244503