EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Health and Ageing
Health Insurance Act 1973
Amendment Declaration of Quality Assurance Activity under Section 124X
QAA No. 3/2008
Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) creates a scheme to encourage efficient quality assurance activities. Those activities help to ensure the quality of health services that are funded by the government, for example, through Medicare benefits and/or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The scheme encourages participation in such activities by protecting certain information from disclosure, and also by providing some protection from civil liability to certain persons engaged in those activities in good faith, in respect of those activities.
In order for Part VC to apply to an activity, the Minister must make a Declaration pursuant to Section 124X of the Act, that the activity described in the Declaration is a quality assurance activity to which Part VC applies. Regulations 23C to 23G of the Health Insurance Regulations 1975 set out the public interest criteria that must be met by quality assurance activities in order to be declared under the section 124X.
On 31 March 2008 the Minister declared the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, Key Incident Monitoring and Management System (KIMMS) to be a quality assurance activity (the Activity) to which Part VC of the Act applies (the original declaration).
The declaration made on 31 March 2008 incorrectly described (at Schedule 1) the organisation engaging in the Activity, as well as the title of the Activity. This amendment is to redress these errors. There has been no change to the Activity declared and described in the original declaration.
The organisation engaging in the Activity is the RCPA Quality Assurance Programs Pty Limited, not the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia as provided in the original declaration. The correct title of the Activity is the Key Incident Monitoring and Management System.
The RCPA Quality Assurance Programs Pty Limited has been consulted in relation to the making of this instrument and have endorsed the changes to the Declaration.