EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1982 NO 221
ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR DEFENCE AIR FORCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The Air Force Regulations, made under the Air Force Act, prescribe financial conditions of service for the Air Force.
Members of the Air Force receive free medical and dental treatment to maintain the level of health and fitness required for Air Force service.
Despite this entitlement, it is the practice to recover the costs of treatment where the necessity for the treatment arose in circumstances which give a member a legal claim against another person (eg, a motor vehicle accident).
In such cases, a determination is made under Air Force Regulation 632A requiring the member to repay the cost of the treatment. The member then includes the amount of the determination in his claim.
In practice, where a member has such a claim, the member is not required to repay to the Commonwealth the costs incurred on his behalf unless and until he receives damages in respect of his medical expenses.
Where the medical treatment is provided by a non-Commonwealth hospital, the cost to be recovered by the Commonwealth is established by the account or accounts rendered by the hospital.
However, where a member receives treatment at a Repatriation hospital or a Defence Force hospital, it is not possible to identify the exact amount which the Commonwealth has spent on a particular patient. The cost of medical treatment in these situations has been assessed at an average daily rate which includes the cost to the hospital of providing medical treatment as well as a proportion of normal hospital running costs.
Where legal proceedings are taken in these circumstances, difficulties have been encountered in proving that the amount which a member is liable to repay to the Commonwealth does not exceed the expense incurred by the Commonwealth.
The Attorney-General’s Department suggested that this difficulty of proof could best be overcome by prescribing a scale of rates which would be deemed to be the cost of a member’s treatment in a Defence Force or Repatriation hospital.
This Statutory Rule amends regulation 632A of the Air Force Regulations to achieve that result.
The rates adopted are those prepared by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for internal costing purposes, showing the cost per bed day per patient in the Repatriation hospitals in the various States. Each set of rates covers a 12 month period. The rates cover periods of treatment after 1 July 1975.
Regulation 2 of the Statutory Rule makes three amendments to regulation 632A.
The first amendment provides that the Minister may require a member who has been provided with medical treatment at a Defence Force or Repatriation hospital in a State to pay to the Commonwealth an amount calculated in accordance with a Schedule to the Regulations in respect of the number of days he was an in-patient and the State in which the hospital is situated.
The second amendment makes clear that the provisions cover persons who received hospital, medical or other treatment at the expense of the Commonwealth and who have since ceased to be members of the Defence Force.
The third amendment provides for the day on which a member enters hospital and the day he leaves to be treated as a single day for the purposes of counting the number of days a member is an in-patient.
Regulation 3 of the Statutory Rule inserts a Schedule incorporating the rates.
Regulation 1 of the Statutory Rule also makes minor changes to the definition of medical treatment to ensure that dental treatment as well as hospital treatment is included and to make the definitions more consistent.
The Statutory Rule has effect from the date of gazettal.