EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF
THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
DECLARATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE ACTIVITIES UNDER SECTION 124X
QAA No. 4/2008
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, 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 set out the public interest criteria that must be met by quality assurance activities in order to be declared under the 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. Section 124X(4) of the Act proscribes 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:
- The Australian and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee Incident Recording and Reporting Program managed by the Australian College of Anaesthetists
This activity involves an assessment or evaluation of the quality of health services; a study of the incidence or causes of conditions or circumstances that may affect the quality of health services; the making of recommendations about the provision of health services as a result of an assessment, evaluation or study; and the monitoring of the implementation of a recommendation about the provision of health services. This Activity relates to health services funded through Medicare Benefits and Public Hospital funding arrangements.
The purpose of this Activity is to improve the safety and quality of anaesthesia for patients by providing an enduring capability to capture analyse and disseminate de-identified information regarding anaesthetic incidents. Such incidents would include ‘near misses’ where no harm has occurred, in order to prevent future incidents. The project is designed to operate as an early warning system that alerts practitioners to potential risks independently of the reporting cycles of equipment manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.
CONSULTATION
Consultations regarding the application for declaration were undertaken from May 2008 to August 2008. This included obtaining advice on the potential value of 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 declare the Activity.
Those consulted included:
- Independent external referees nominated by the applicant.
- Members of the Qualified Privilege Advisory Group, which includes:
a clinician; members with expertise in health law, health care quality and ethics; and
a consumer representative.
- Sections of the Department of Health and Ageing including the Mental Health and Workforce Division.
The Declaration of this activity will not result in any direct or substantial indirect effect on business.