EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 NO. 231
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 that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Section 33 of the Act provides for the payment by the Commonwealth of daily bed payments in respect of each day upon which an approved bed is occupied by an eligible person as an in-patient in a private hospital in a State or the Australian Capital Territory. The Act defines an approved bed as a bed included in the number of beds to which the approval of a hospital under section 24 of the Act relates, and defines an eligible person as being an Australian resident, which is also defined under the Act. The Northern Territory is, by virtue of section 23E of the Act, regarded as a State for the purposes of section 33.
Sub-section 33(1) of the Act provides for two levels of daily bed payment, being $28 in the case of a surgical bed and $16 in any other case. A surgical bed is deemed under sub-section 33(5) of the Act to be an approved bed occupied by an eligible person, during a stay as an in-patient of a hospital, to whom there is rendered a ‘surgical procedure’ during that stay. A ‘surgical procedure’ is defined by sub-section 33(12) of the Act as meaning a service to which a prescribed item relates. An item is defined in the Act as an item in the table of medical services, prescribed for the purpose of section 4 of the Act by the Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 26) Regulations as amended. The table sets out in items the medical services recognised for medical benefits purposes under the Act.
The purpose of the regulations is to amend the list of items prescribed, by Regulation 4A of the Health Insurance Regulations (‘the Regulations’), as ‘surgical procedures’ for the purposes of sub-section 33(12) of the Act. This list of items is contained in Schedule 4 to the Regulations. The regulations amend that Schedule by the inclusion of 9 additional
items and the omission of 5 items from those previously prescribed. These amendments are necessary to reflect variations to the table of medical services relating to surgery of a substantial nature, arising from the Health Insurance Variation of Fees and Medical Services (No. 29) Regulations, which came into operation on 1 November 1983.
Section 33 of the Act will be repealed with effect from 1 February 1984 by section 40 of the Health Legislation Amendment Act 1983 (Act No. 54, Assented to on 1 October 1983). The statutory rules would therefore cease to have authority under the Act from that date.
The statutory rules came into operation on 1 November 1983 to coincide with the date of effect the Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 29) Regulations.