Medicare sued by provider

Medicare Australia's efforts to connect private health insurers to its new central electronic claims processing hub have landed it in court. The agency has been sued by an independent provider that accused the government of using predatory pricing to force competitors out of the marketplace.

Health transaction clearing house ICSGlobal yesterday confirmed that its wholly owned subsidiary Thelma had taken action under the Trade Practices Act in the Federal Court in an effort to restrain the new Medicare scheme.