AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
Health Insurance (Medicare Benefits Payable in Respect of Professional Services – Services Provided on Norfolk Island) Direction 2022
I, Nigel Murray, Assistant Secretary, MBS Policy and Specialist Services Branch, Medical Benefits Division, delegate of the Minister for Health and Aged Care, pursuant to subsection 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act), hereby:
(1) REVOKE the Direction under subsection 19(2) of the Act that was granted on
1 July 2016 that Medicare benefits shall be payable in respect of a professional service, pathology service and diagnostic imaging service rendered on Norfolk Island by, on behalf of, or under an arrangement with the Commonwealth, a State, or an authority established by a law of the Commonwealth or law of a State.
(2) DIRECT that Medicare benefits shall be payable in respect of:
a) a professional service (as defined in Section 3 of the Act) which has been agreed to be provided by, or on behalf of, or under an arrangement under the Inter-Governmental Partnership Agreement on State Service Delivery to Norfolk Island between the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of Queensland, for which items specified:
(i) in the general medical services table (means the table
prescribed under subsection 4(1) of the Act) relate; and
(ii) in the pathology services table (means the table prescribed under subsection 4A(1) of the Act) which were rendered in a State or Territory other than Norfolk Island – if the pathology service rendered requires a pathology specimen collected from an eligible person on Norfolk Island; and
(iii) in the diagnostic imaging services table (means the table prescribed under subsection 4AA(1) of the Act ), where the diagnostic imaging procedure for use in the rendering of the diagnostic imaging service was performed on Norfolk Island; and
b) where the professional service is rendered to:
(i) an eligible person (as defined in Section 3 of the Act) on Norfolk Island; and
(ii) a patient who is not receiving an episode of hospital treatment (as defined in Section 121-5 of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007).
Note: ‘Professional service’ as used in this Direction is defined in the Act.
(3) DECLARE that this direction is effective from the date of signature.
Dated this 22 day of February 2022
Nigel Murray
Assistant Secretary
Medical Benefits Division
Health Resourcing Group
Department of Health