As of 1995, General Practice in Australia has been formally recognised as specialists by the Medical Board with its own specialist vocational training pathway; its specialised role in health care is that of providing primary medical care to the community and comparable to that of specialist family physicians as in the United States and Canada; that is to say, a properly trained and qualified GP should be able to independently diagnose and treat a wide variety and range of illnesses in the primary care setting prior to referral to their specialist colleagues. That having been said, the term 'specialists' more colloquially and traditionally refers to clinicians qualified in a specialised field of medicine beyond the scope of General Practice. Medicare also makes this delineation for the purposes of appropriately allocating referrals, rebates and billings amongst 'Non-VR' GPs versus 'VR' GPs versus 'Specialist' Consultants. That is, those wishing to practice as a non-vocationally registered General Practitioner (Non-VR GP) without specialist registration can only do so in designated areas-of-need (such as that of rural townships) and at the compromise of only been able to invoice for limited Medicare rebates. The exception to this are those who were grandfathered as already working as GPs prior to 1996. Non-specialist doctors are issued a restricted Medicare provider number that allows them to initiate referrals and request pathology and radiology investigations, but not access full Medicare billings. Medicare requires that patients attend their GP as their primary point-of-care, and in order to access Specialist care, the GP has to initiate and provide a referral.