EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Health Insurance (Extended Medicare Safety Net) Act 2012
Proclamation
Subsection 2(1) of the Health Insurance (Extended Medicare Safety Net) Act 2012 (the Act) provides that items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 to the Act commence on a day to be fixed by proclamation. However, if any of the provisions of items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 do not commence within six months of the date the Act receives the Royal Assent, then those provisions commence on the first day after the end of that six month period. The Act received the Royal Assent on 12 September 2012.
The purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 12 October 2012 as the day on which items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 to the Act commence.
The Act corrects a loophole that allows doctors who perform more than one service on the same patient on the same occasion to avoid the Extended Medicare Safety Net caps that currently apply to some individual operation services. The commencement of item 4 of Schedule 1 will be automatically triggered to commence at the same time as the provisions covered by items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1. Item 3 of Schedule 1 commenced on the day after the Act received the Royal Assent.
The Department consulted with the Department of Human Services (DHS) who will be implementing the changes that will come into effect as a result of the proclamation. DHS approved the legislation prior to it being introduced to Parliament and have confirmed that it is able to implement the changes outlined in items 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 of the Act on
12 October 2012.
The commencement date allows time for the DHS to conform to the requirements of the Schedule, and ensure that the internal administrative claiming systems can be initiated upon the legal commencement date.
A Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights was prepared for the Act, and therefore an additional Statement is not required for the Proclamation.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.