EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO. 87
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Sub-section 133(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (‘the Act’) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-section 19A(1) of the Act provides that, subject to sub-section 19A(2) of the Act, the regulations may provide that, unless the Minister otherwise directs, medicare benefits are not payable under the Act in respect of professional services rendered in prescribed circumstances.
Regulation 2ADB of the Health Insurance Regulations (‘the Regulations’) prescribes such circumstances for the purposes of sub-section 19A(1) of the Act.
Sub-section 19A(2) of the Act provides that regulations shall not be made for the purposes of sub-section 19A(1) except in accordance with a recommendation made to the Minister by the Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee under paragraph 67(1)(aa) of the Act. Paragraph 67(1)(aa) provides that it is a function of the Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee to consider, in pursuance of appropriate reference by the Minister for Health, whether medicare benefits should continue to be payable in circumstances specified by the Minister and to make recommendations arising from that consideration in writing to the Minister.
The Minister for Health accepted a recommendation of the Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee, made after consideration in pursuance of a reference to it by the Minister in accordance with paragraph 67(1)(aa) of the Act, that medicare benefits should not continue to be payable in circumstances where professional services are rendered in relation to the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. This recommendation was based on the opinion of the Committee that this form of treatment should be regarded as being at an experimental stage and, at best, of doubtful value.
The regulation amends Regulation 2ADB of the Regulations in accordance with the recommendation of the Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee to provide that professional services, rendered in relation to the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, shall be taken to be professional services rendered in prescribed circumstances for the purposes of sub-section 19A(1) of the Act.
The regulation came into operation on the date of its notification in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette.