EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2005 No. 271

 

Minute No. 31  of  2005  --      Minister for Health and Ageing

 

Subject --     Health Insurance Act 1973

 

Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 4)

 

Subsection 133(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) provides that the

Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

The Act provides, in part, for payments of Medicare benefits in respect of professional services rendered to eligible persons.  Section 9 of the Act provides that Medicare benefits shall be calculated by reference to the fees for medical services, including diagnostic imaging services, set out in prescribed tables.

 

Section 4AA of the Act provides that the regulations may prescribe a table of diagnostic imaging services, the amount of fees applicable in respect of each item and the rules for interpretation of the table.  The Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations 2005 (the Principal Regulations), which commenced on 1 November 2005, prescribe such a table.

 

The Regulations provide legislative effect to an increase in the fee for items of service 64990 and 64991 in Schedule 1 to the Principal Regulations, effective from 1 November 2005.  The fee for these services, which are for the management of bulk-billed diagnostic imaging services, was indexed from 1 November 2005.  However, due to an administrative oversight the fees were not amended in the Principal Regulations. The new fees for items 64990 and 64991 are $6.05 and $9.20, respectively. 

 

The Act specifies no conditions that need to be met before the power to make the Regulations may be exercised.

 

The Regulations would be a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

The Regulations commenced on 1 November 2005. The Office of Legislative Drafting and Publishing has advised that the retrospective commencement date does not affect the rights of a person or impose liabilities on a person other than the Commonwealth.

 

 

                                                                            Authority:              Subsection 133(1) of the                                                                                                Health Insurance Act 1973