Malcolm Parmenter took over as the company's managing director in September, after former CEO Peter Gregg's decision to step down in May to fight charges of falsifying company records when he was at Leighton Holdings.

After a long fight with the healthcare industry for most of last year, the Turnbull government was forced to scrap plans to dump incentive payments for pathology and diagnostic imaging.

But since, there had been "good dialogue" with Health Minister Greg Hunt, Mr Parmenter said.

"We have been working with the other major providers to establish an industry body to negotiate with one voice with the government," he told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday.

"This is a change from the past and should put us on a stronger footing."

There had been "good dialogue" with Health Minister Greg Hunt. Photo: Jesse Marlow

He said that while the government was "keen to keep healthcare off the front pages of the papers, there are unlikely to be any free kicks for the industry".

"Private sector providers must be agile enough to adapt to whatever funding environment the government develops," he said.

$1b target hit in pathology

Mr Parmenter said the company's state-based pathology businesses - which deliver over one third of all pathology tests in Australia - made over $1 billion in revenue for the first time last year.

"Pathology is a mature market in Australia, where successive governments have looked for savings and fees per test in real terms are less than they were 20 years ago," he said.

But the industry had "reached the limit of consolidation".

"Further growth for us will be organic, through increasing our medical centre footprint and through partnering with specialists who drive a high volume of pathology testing," he said.

Mr Parmenter also addressed the issue of 600 Victorian workers at Dorevitch Pathology recently striking over pay.

"We are in arbitration with the relevant union, scheduled for March next year," he said.

More than 600 Victorian workers at Dorevitch Pathology recently went on strike over pay

Mr Parmenter also spoke about the company's proposed expansion into Asia.

It was still in discussions with all potential partners in Asia, but he said he would be visiting the region in December to "review the options, evaluate their feasibility and where they sit in our priorities".

Upgrades cost short-term

Apart from its pathology business, Primary runs a network of medical centres and diagnostic imaging sites across the country.

The diagnostic imaging??? business was up 30 per cent in the 2017 financial year and would "continue to focus on high-end, multi-disciplinary centres, he said.

Primary was investing in the expansion of its hospital channel through tenders and by acquiring practices located in hospitals and technology was also being rolled out to reduce costs and time.

These investments in new technology and businesses would dent performance in the current financial year.

There would be additional costs from the roll-out of technology programs and investments in the company's Health & Co private medical centres and IVF operations, he said.

The loss of the national bowel screening contract in pathology, while "not material for this financial year", would be a headwind in "the latter part of the year".

"Overall we expect our underlying net profit after tax for the year to be in the range of $92 million to 97 million, with the second half's trading likely to be stronger than the first half," he said.

Winning over GPs

Mr Parmenter said the company was about 2.5 years through a five-year process to transition GPs onto different contract models.

Primary was about 2.5 years through a five-year process to transition GPs onto different contract models. Photo: Lyn Osborn

Changes were already resulting in reduced working hours for the average GP in its clinics.

But recruitment of new GPs "continues to be problematic", especially in terms of Australian-trained and registered doctors.

"While it is true that our reputation within the medical community has been an issue in the past, there are other barriers which we are rapidly seeking to address."

The company had appointed a new head of recruitment and was making its contracts more "simple, plain English documents with greatly reduced or no restraints in the case of doctors who are signing on to flexible arrangements".

Primary had a Clinical Institute which hosted GP registrars for their training.

"We have over 50 registrars signed up for the first intake in 2018 - this is an invaluable pipeline of young GPs and they particularly want a career where they can offer appointments and privately bill," he said.

"My experience at IPN and Sonic Clinical Services, where we grew the GP group from 600 to 2,200, suggests that it will take between 12 and 18 months to have our recruitment initiatives really firing."

Remuneration changes

Primary Health Care chairman Robert Ferguson said the board had restructured its remuneration policies in 2016 in response to shareholder and proxy feedback.

Primary's former chief Peter Gregg received total remuneration of $1.68 million for the 2017 financial year.

Primary's former chief Peter Gregg left with almost $1 million severance pay. Photo: Jessica Hromas

On top of this he received a total of $972,073 in termination benefits and the payout of his leave balances, taking his total final pay packet to $2.65 million.

Mr Parmenter has a salary of $1.65 million, with short-term incentives worth $962,000, and the same in long-term incentives over three years.

Mr Ferguson said the company had refined its remuneration policies further this year "to ensure that remuneration packages are linked to company performance and build alignment with shareholders".

Senior executives now receive a blend of fixed and at-risk remuneration and non-financial incentives will be "predominantly linked to specific projects which will drive shareholder value".

This year short-term financial incentives linked to group performance were not granted.

The company now had new auditors in Ernst & Young, moving away from Deloitte which had been auditing the company for more than 20 years.

Primary shares were down 4.5 cents at $3.52 at 1pm.