The purpose of this evaluation is to assess if the Eating Disorders Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items are meeting the needs of people experiencing an eating disorder, people caring for someone with an eating disorder, health professionals providing eating disorder services under the items, and the Australian Government. 

The methodology involved:

• a combination of qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys with key stakeholders (existing longitudinal datasets, Medicare survey, community survey, qualitative interviews)
• use of pre-existing objective data on healthcare utilisation by Eating Disorders MBS item codes (national data Linkage, Services Australia Eating Disorders MBS Items usage)
• cross-sectional exploration of associations between Eating Disorders MBS items use and mental health/eating disorder symptoms and demographics (Medicare survey)
• longitudinal investigations of changes in eating disorder and mental health symptoms in relation to healthcare utilisation via the Eating Disorders MBS items (national data linkage, existing longitudinal datasets, general practice case reviews).

The review recommends wholesale retention of the current items and makes additional recommendations to ensure the ongoing success of this initiative. 

Key findings

• People who had received treatment supported by an Eating Disorder Plan reported significantly lower levels of eating disorder symptoms after treatment, compared with prior to treatment and most indicated that the services they received were wholly or partly responsible for the improvement.
• Having a higher number of treatment sessions was associated with significantly greater improvement, satisfaction with treatment, and perceived helpfulness of treatment for recovery.
• Eating Disorder Plans were perceived to be significantly more helpful than treatment through other means for people caring for someone receiving eating disorder treatment.
• More than a quarter of all treatment services were delivered by around 5% of providers and around half of all services were delivered by inexperienced providers who each delivered fewer than 20 sessions in total. 

Recommendations

• Address difficulties in coordination of care and treatment progression, specifically wait times.
• Improve uneven distribution of treatment service provision across providers.
• Reduce cost-related barriers to equity of access.
• Enhance workforce capacity and capability to meet demands.