EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 3)
Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) creates a scheme to encourage efficient quality assurance activities in connection with the provision of health services. Those activities help to ensure the quality of health services that are funded by the Government, including through Medicare benefits, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and 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.
Subsection 124X(1) of the Act provides that the Minister may, by legislative instrument, declare a quality assurance activity described in the declaration to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC applies.
The purpose of the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 3) (the Declaration) is to declare the Australian and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee (ANZTADC) Incident Recording and Reporting Program, also known as webAIRS (web-based anaesthetic incident recording system), to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Act applies.
The body authorising this activity is the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA). The activity will be undertaken by ANZCA in coordination with the ANZTAD Committee, which reports to the ANZCA Council. The three parent organisations represented on the ANZTAD Committee are ANZCA, the Australian Society of Anaesthetists and New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists. All members of the three parent organisations are eligible to participate in webAIRS.
The webAIRS program provides a secure, de-identified repository for incident data and providers will be made aware of their responsibilities in compliance with the requirements of declared quality assurance activities to ensure the confidentiality of any identifiable data. The program encourages open self-reflective practice based on national level de-identified data and participation earns anaesthetists continuing professional development points. Local level reporting does not form part of this quality assurance activity.
The ANZTAD Committee leads the process of analysing the cleansed data and release of findings. This includes aggregation of the data so it is suitable for reporting purposes. Nominated authors use the de-identified data to produce reports for journal publications, e-newsletters and magazines.
Data is reported anonymously into the webAIRS portal. After data is entered into the webAIRS portal it is reviewed to ensure that any potentially identifiable information is removed from the incident reports. In the event that anaesthetists accidentally enter identifying data this is removed through the data cleansing process, including location and health practitioner identifiers. A webAIRS data analyst is employed specifically to undertake this process. The ANZTADC Coordinator and the Medical Director then undertake further data cleansing. Only when the data is cleansed does it become a part of the data set used for analysis to compile case reports using numerical values such as patient BMI, age, date, time and length of procedure.
Details of the Declaration are set out in Attachment A.
CONSULTATION
ANZCA, as the applicant for declaration of the activity, was consulted in relation to the content of the Declaration. Wider consultation was not considered necessary as the quality assurance activity only relates to the gathering of information for the ANZTADC – webAIRS program, as conducted by ANZCA.
The declaration of this activity will not result in any direct or substantial indirect effect on business.
The Declaration commences on the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislation.
The Declaration is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003.
Authority: Subsection 124X(1) of the
Health Insurance Act 1973
ATTACHMENT A
Details of the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No.3)
Section 1 – Name
This section provides for the Declaration to be referred to as the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 3) (the Declaration).
Section 2 – Commencement
This section provides that the Declaration commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Section 3 – Authority
This section provides that the Declaration is made under subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.
Section 4 – Repeal
This section provides that the Declaration is repealed on the day at the end of 5 years after it was signed. Subsection 124(4) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 provides that a declaration of a quality assurance activity ceases to be in force at the end of 5 years after it is signed, unless sooner revoked.
Section 5 – Schedule
This section provides that the activity described in the Schedule is declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.
Schedule – Declaration of quality assurance activity
The Schedule provides that the name of the activity is ‘the Australian and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee (ANZTADC) Incident Recording and Reporting Program – webAIRS’. It also describes the quality assurance activity as a program that captures, analyses and disseminates de‑identified data about critical anaesthetic incidents that occur in Australia and New Zealand across a spectrum of incident severity – from near miss to severe harm – through a voluntary web‑based incident reporting system called webAIRS.
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 3)
This Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
Overview of the Legislative Instrument
The Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity) Declaration 2018 (No. 3) (the Declaration) declares the Australian and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee (ANZTADC) Incident Recording and Reporting Program, also known as webAIRS (web-based anaesthetic incident recording system), conducted by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) applies. Information known solely as the result of the activity, or documents created solely for the purposes of the activity, will be covered by qualified privilege.
Human rights implications
This Declaration engages the right to health as set out in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right by assisting with the progressive realisation by all appropriate means of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
The Qualified Privilege Scheme established by Part VC of the Act is aimed at encouraging participation in quality assurance activities that help ensure the highest possible health care standards are maintained. The quality assurance activity described in this Declaration will provide participants with a greater degree of confidence and security that their participation is solely for the benefit of establishing and improving outcomes of the community health care.
Conclusion
This Declaration is compatible with human rights as it promotes the right to health.
Prof. Brendan Murphy
Chief Medical Officer
Department of Health