Hospital Benefits (Temporary Absence from Australia) Regulations (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1948. No..

REGULATIONS UNDER THE HOSPITAL BENEFITS ACT 1945-1947.*

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Hospital Benefits Act 1945-1947.

Dated the Seventeenth day of June, 1948.

W.J.McKell

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

Minister of State for Health.

 

Hospital Benefits (Temporary Absence from Australia) Regulations.

Citation.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Hospital Benefits (Temporary Absence from Australia) Regulations.

Commencement.

2. These Regulations (except regulation 11) shall be deemed to have come into operation on the first day of July, 1946.

Definitions.

3.—(1.) In these Regulations, unless the contrary intention appears—

“authorized” means authorized by the Director-General;

“benefit” means Commonwealth Hospital Benefit for Persons Temporarily Absent from Australia paid or payable under these Regulations;

“hospital” means any premises in any country or territory outside Australia, ordinarily recognized as a public or private hospital, in which patients are received and lodged for hospital treatment for which a charge is made, or any part of any such premises, but does not include any mental hospital or home or any convalescent home, benevolent home, infirmary, home for the aged or orphanage not giving hospital treatment, or any part of any such premises;

“hospital treatment” means accommodation and nursing care for the purposes of medical, surgical or obstetric treatment by or under the supervision of a medical practitioner lawfully practising as such in the country or territory concerned, or of obstetric treatment by or under the supervision of an obstetric nurse lawfully practising as such in the country or territory concerned;

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on , 1948.

1987.—Price 3d. 10/3.5.1948.

 

“qualified patient” means a person who is a resident of Australia, or the spouse, child or other dependant of a resident of Australia, and who occupies a bed in a hospital for the purpose of hospital treatment for which a charge is made, and includes, where two or more children are born at one birth to a qualified patient, any child born at that birth in excess of one, and also any newly born child born to a qualified patient except during the time the mother of that child is occupying a bed, but does not include a member of the staff of a hospital receiving treatment in his own quarters;

“resident of Australia” means a person who ordinarily resides in Australia, and includes a person who is a resident of Australia within the meaning of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936-1947;

“the Director-General” means the Director-General of Health.

(2.) The decision of the Director-General that any accommodation and care afforded in a hospital is or is not hospital treatment, or that any institution is or is not a hospital, for the purposes of these Regulations, shall be final and conclusive.

Benefit payable.

4.—(1.)Subject to these Regulations, there shall be payable to or on behalf of a person who has been (after the commencement of this regulation) a qualified patient the Commonwealth Hospital Benefit for Persons Temporarily Absent from Australia of Six shillings (Australian currency) for every day on which the patient occupied a bed in a hospital for the purpose of hospital treatment.

(2.) The benefit payable in respect of a qualified patient in respect of any period shall not exceed—

(a) the hospital fees and expenses payable in respect of the patient for that period; or

(b) where the whole or part of the hospital fees and expenses in respect of the patient for that period are borne, apart from these Regulations, by the Commonwealth, or where any other law (whether in force in Australia or elsewhere) provides for payment on behalf of, or re-imbursement to, the qualified patient of the whole or part of those fees and expenses—the amount remaining after deducting the amount so borne, or the amount payable under that law, from the full amount of the fees and expenses.

(3.) For the purposes of this regulation, “day” means a period of twenty-four hours ending at midnight, and the day of admission to hospital and the day of discharge or death shall together be counted as one day.

Obstetric cases.

5. Benefit shall not be payable in respect of obstetric cases for any waiting period which exceeds two days before the onset of labour or for any period exceeding fifteen days after the birth of a child, unless the claim for benefit is accompanied by a certificate of a medical practitioner, lawfully practising as such in the country or territory where the hospital is situated, stating that the patient was in need of the longer period of hospital attention on account of some abnormality, disease of

 

pregnancy or the puerperium, complication or difficult labour, and stating the nature of the abnormality, disease, complication or difficult labour.

Claims for periods exceeding eight weeks.

6. Benefit shall not be payable in respect of any patient for any period exceeding eight weeks, unless the claim for benefit is accompanied by a certificate of a medical practitioner, lawfully practising as such in the country or territory where the hospital is situated, stating the nature of the illness and the reason for the further hospital treatment, and the Director-General is satisfied that the further hospital treatment was necessary.

Manner of making claims.

7. Each claim for benefit shall be—

(a) in accordance with the authorized form;

(b) signed by the patient or by some responsible person on behalf of the patient; and

(c) accompanied by—

(i) the receipted hospital account in respect of the period covered by the claim; and

(ii) a certificate, in accordance with the authorized form, of the medical practitioner or obstetric nurse by or under whose supervision the medical, surgical or obstetric treatment was received.

Manner of payment.

8.—(1.) Benefit in respect of a qualified patient shall be paid in such manner and to such person as the Director-General considers to be appropriate.

(2.) The Director-General may make arrangements with Commonwealth representatives outside Australia for the payment of benefit.

Delegation.

9.—(1.) The Director-General may, by writing under his hand, delegate any of his powers under these Regulations (except this power of delegation) so that the delegated powers may be exercised by the delegate with respect to the matter or class of matters, or the country or territory outside Australia, specified in the instrument of delegation.

(2.) Every delegation by the Director-General shall be revocable in writing at will, and no delegation shall prevent the exercise of any power by the Director-General.

Power to dispense with certain requirements.

10. The Director-General may, in special circumstances, dispense with the production, in support of a claim for benefit, of any certificate or other evidence required by these Regulations, and may direct payment of benefit as if the certificate or other evidence had been produced.

Offences.

11. A person shall not, whether in Australia or elsewhere—

(a) make, either orally or in writing, a false or misleading statement in or in connexion with, or in support of, any application or claim for benefit;

(b) obtain any benefit which is not payable;

(c) obtain payment of any benefit by means of any false or misleading statement; or

(d) make or present to any person doing duty in relation to these Regulations any statement or document which is false in any particular.

Penalty: Fifty pounds or imprisonment for three months.

 

By Authority: L. F. Johnston, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.