Health Insurance Act 1973 - Declaration of Quality Assurance Activity under section 124X (QAA No. 3/2009)

Administered by Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

Legislation au F2009L03735 Not in force Legislative Instrument

Legislation content

 

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF

THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING

HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973

DECLARATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE ACTIVITY

UNDER SECTION 124X

QAA No.  3/2009

 

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, through Medicare benefits, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Public Hospitals and/or Health Program Grants.  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 (the Regulations) set out the public interest criteria that must be met by quality assurance activities in order to be declared under section 124X.

 

The Declaration is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.  This Declaration has effect from the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.  Subsection 124X(4) of the Act prescribes that, unless sooner revoked, this determination ceases to be in force at the end of 5 years after the instrument of declaration was signed. 

 

This declaration under subsection 124X(1) applies Part VC of the Act to the following activity:

 

  1. Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) – Rural Craft Group Audit

 

The activity was previously declared in 2003 (QAA 3/2003) and has the purpose of re-defining benchmarks and standards set for surgical care in a rural setting through surgical audit and peer review activities.

 

An overview of the activity for which the Declaration pursuant to section 124X is made is contained in the Attachment.

Before the Minister can make a declaration, certain requirements must be met.

Firstly, the Minister must be satisfied that the persons engaged in the activity are authorised to do so as described in paragraph 124X(3)(a) of the Act.


The activity meets the requirements of paragraph 124X(3)(a) in that the persons engaged in this activity are authorised to do so by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which is an association of health professionals.

Secondly, paragraph 124X(3)(b) of the Act provides that the Minister must be satisfied that it is in the public interest to have Part VC of the Act apply to the activity. In doing so, the Minister must have regard to criteria prescribed by the Regulations. The criteria relevant to the activity are in regulations 23C, 23D and 23E or 23F.

The activity meets the criteria as follows:

  • As required by regulation 23C, the activity includes the disclosure of non-identifying information that concerns the quality of service assessed, evaluated or studied. Outcomes of the activity will be disclosed among those involved and presented at the Provincial Surgeons of Australia conference. Reports will be provided to the Department of Health and Ageing and internal reporting to RACS will be ongoing.
  • Regulation 23D does not apply as the activity will be engaged in more than one State or Territory.
  • Regulation 23E does not apply as the activity has previously been engaged in Australia.
  • Regulation 23F applies as the activity has previously been carried out in Australia and is a re-declaration of activity QAA 3/2003. The Minister’s re-declaration will continue to encourage full participation in the activity by persons who provide health services by providing participants with a greater degree of confidence and security that their participation is solely to the benefit of establishing and improving quality assurance.
  • Regulation 23G does not apply as the activity does not include the assessment or evaluation by a person of the services, skill or performance of a health practitioner for the purpose of determining the health care practitioner’s clinical practicing rights.

 

CONSULTATION

 

Consultations regarding the applications for re-declaration were undertaken in August 2009. This included obtaining advice on the potential value of re-declaring the activity as a quality assurance activity for the purposes of the Act, the methodology used to conduct the activity, and whether the application met the criteria required for declaration, in particular those criteria relating to whether it is in the public interest to re-declare the activity.

 

Those consulted included:

 

  • Members of the Qualified Privilege Advisory Group, which includes:

­       an external clinician; a legal expert, a quality manager working in the field of health care quality assurance; and

­       a consumer representative.

 

The re-declaration of this activity will not result in any direct or substantial indirect

effect on business.

 

The Declaration comes into operation on the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

As provided by subsection 124X(4) a declaration ceases to be in force at the end of 5 years after the instrument of declaration is signed, unless revoked earlier.

 

QAA No. 3/2009

 

 

 

 

 

ATTACHMENT

OVERVIEW OF THE ACTIVITY

1. PURPOSE OF ACTIVITY

The Rural Craft Group Audit has developed the standards against which any rural surgeon can benchmark their practice or even a new procedure, adding to the sustainability and practicality of rural surgical activity. The activity recognises the unique environment rural and remote surgeons operate in and seeks to implement continuing professional development that is directed to these unique needs.

The audit will examine whether the current performance meets accepted benchmarks and where appropriate re-define those benchmarks and standards set for surgical care in rural and remote areas.

The objectives of the activity are:

  • To encourage rural specialists to participate in audit activities;
  • To provide professional development to participants in the use of the craft group audit collation tool and database;
  • To establish a sustainable craft group audit system which can be utilised to measure performance and identify outliers. It will encourage regular review of performance through peer review;
  • To utilise the collected data to verify benchmarks for rural surgery and provide feedback to participants; and
  • To use the craft group data set established in the previous project to benchmark the outcomes of five common procedures.

 

 

 

 

 

Interactions

Authorises

All Versions

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation at 26 August 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government law please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au.