Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Unidentifiable Condition) Determination 19/2000 (Cth)

REPATRIATION COMMISSION

VETERANS’ ENTITLEMENTS ACT 1986

Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Unidentifiable Condition) Determination 2000

Instrument No. 19/2000

The Repatriation Commission makes this Determination under subsection 88A(1) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 and under section 4 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.

Dated                    8 December           2000

NEIL JOHNSTON
PRESIDENT BRIAN FLYNN
A/g DEPUTY PRESIDENT PAUL STEVENS
COMMISSIONER

Repatriation Commission

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Part 1        Introduction

1.1Name of Determination

This Determination is the Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Unidentifiable Condition) Determination 19/2000.

1.2Commencement

(a)Subject to paragraph (b), on the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Act 2000, this Determination is taken to have commenced on 30 March 2000.

(b)Part 4 of this Determination commences after the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Act 2000 and on gazettal of this Determination.

Note: Schedule 1 commences on Royal Assent.

1.3Definitions

In this Determination:

Act means the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986.

peacetime service means "defence service" or service other than: "operational service", "hazardous service", "warlike service", non-warlike service" or "peacekeeping service".

Note           the terms "defence service","operational service", "hazardous service", "warlike service", "non-warlike service", "peacekeeping service" are defined in the Act.

relevant service means "operational service", "hazardous service", "warlike service", "non-warlike service" or "peacekeeping service" but does not mean "peacetime service".

specified treatment means the treatment described in paragraph 3.1 of this Determination.

suffers from an unidentifiable condition means where a person presents with symptoms of an unidentifiable condition.

unidentifiable condition means a condition that, in the opinion of the Repatriation Commission, is a medical condition that does not satisfy diagnostic criteria in current evidence-based medicine.

1.4  Purpose

The purpose of this determination is to enable certain veterans who suffer from symptoms of an unidentifiable medical condition to receive certain treatment for those symptoms under and in accordance with instruments made, and arrangements entered into, by the Repatriation Commission under Part V of the Act. 

The class of veterans eligible for treatment under this determination are those veterans who, within 15 years of the end of their relevant service, make a claim for a pension under Part II or Part IV of the Act in respect of a condition that, after the making of the claim and investigation by the Repatriation Commission, is, in the opinion of the Repatriation Commission, an unidentifiable condition and the claim is not determined.

It should be noted that this Determination will operate in the terms above in the interval between the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Act 2000 and the gazettal of this Determination.

When this Determination is gazetted, it will be automatically varied to provide, among other things, that before the Repatriation Commission determines a condition to be an unidentifiable condition, it must take advice from an appropriately qualified person.  The other variation will make it clear that in order to be eligible for specified treatment, a claim for pension must be lodged by a veteran within 15 years after the end of the relevant service and not within 15 years of the end of the relevant service.

Note: if a claim for an unidentifiable condition is determined when the condition is identified and is found to be service-related then treatment-eligibility will be derived not from this determination but from provisions in Part V of the Act.

Part 2      Eligibility for Treatment

2.1    Specified Class of Veterans Eligible for Specified Treatment

(a)       A veteran who rendered continuous full-time relevant service and who suffers from an unidentifiable condition is eligible to be provided with specified treatment under Part V of the Act provided that, within 15 years of the end of the relevant service, the veteran made a claim for a pension under Part II or Part IV of the Act in respect of a condition that, after investigation by the Repatriation Commission, is an unidentifiable condition and the claim is not determined.

(b)       Subject to paragraph (c), where eligibility for specified treatment of an unidentifiable condition is established under paragraph (a), eligibility is effective from and including the date that is 3 months before the date on which the veteran made the claim for a pension under Part II or Part IV of the Act to and including the date on which the claim is determined.

(c)     A veteran is not eligible for specified treatment of an unidentifiable condition before the date on which this Part of this Determination commenced.

Note: this Part of this Determination commenced on 30 March 2000

Part 3     Specified Treatment

3.1Kind of treatment veteran within specified class is eligible to receive

For the purposes of section 88A of the Act and this Determination the following treatment is "treatment of a specified kind":

(i)medical treatment;

(ii)dental treatment;

(iii)pharmaceutical benefits treatment;

(iv)treatment generally from other health providers;

(v)treatment at hospitals and institutions;

(vi)residential care treatment;

(vii)treatment by rehabilitative appliance;

(viii)respite care and supplementary assistance treatment.

for or in respect of an unidentifiable condition.

Note (1): the circumstances in which and the conditions subject to which specified treatment is to be provided, including being provided to eligible veterans as private patients, are governed by Treatment Principles and Repatriation Private Patient Principles made pursuant to sections 90 and 90A of the Act respectively.

Note (2) "treatment" under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 is very broad and

includes treatment to restore a person to physical or mental health, alleviate a person's

suffering or ensure a person's social well-being.

Part 4     Variation of Determination

4.1    This Determination is varied as follows:

Paragraph 1.3

immediately after the definition of Act, insert:

informed advice of an appropriate person means the advice from a medical practitioner employed by the Commonwealth ("medical adviser") as to whether a condition of a veteran satisfies diagnostic criteria in current evidence-based medicine which advice is to be based on an assessment (or assessments) of the veteran's condition by a registered medical practitioner (or by registered medical practitioners) who, in the opinion of the medical adviser, had the special expertise to ascertain if the condition of the veteran satisfied diagnostic criteria in current evidence-based medicine.

omit the definition of "unidentifiable condition",             

substitute:

unidentifiable condition means a condition of a veteran that, in the opinion of the Repatriation Commission (which opinion is to be formed only after considering the informed advice of an appropriate person) is a medical condition that does not satisfy diagnostic criteria in current evidence-based medicine.

Paragraph 2.1 (a)

          Omit "of the end", substitute:

after the end

4.2       The variations made by this Part apply to a veteran whose potential eligibility for treatment under the Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Unidentifiable Condition) Determination 1/2000 was being formally considered by the Repatriation Commission before gazettal of this Determination and at the time of gazettal the Commission had not concluded its deliberations.

Note: the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Act 2000 repealed section 88A of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 and by implication the Determinations made thereunder, and re-inserted the section.  Essentially this Determination is in the same terms as the repealed Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Unidentifiable Condition) Determination 1/2000 albeit with the variations made by Part 4.

PART 5      TRANSITIONAL

5.1 A veteran who, immediately before the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Act 2000, was eligible for treatment of an unidentifiable condition under the Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Unidentifiable Condition) Determination 1/2000, is eligible for treatment of the unidentifiable condition under this Determination.

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Repatriation Commission