EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1982 NO. 370
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 27) Regulations
Section 133 of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Schedule 1 to the Act contains a table of medical services and rules for the interpretation of the table. The table of medical services contains items which set out the description of each medical service, and the fee for medical benefits purposes applicable in each State in respect of the service.
Section 4 of the Act provides that the table of medical services, items or rules of interpretation in Schedule 1 to the Act may be varied or replaced by regulations, and that regulations replacing such a table may be amended by regulations. The Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 26) Regulations prescribe a table under section 4 of the Act.
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Section 9 of the Act provides that Commonwealth medical benefits shall be calculated by reference to the fees for medical services set out in the table of medical services. The amount of medical benefit paid by a registered medical benefits organisation out of its basic medical benefits table in respect of a medical service is also, by virtue of the definition of ‘guaranteed medical benefit’ in sub-section 4(1) of the National Health Act 1953, based on the fees set out in the table of medical services.
The Minister for Health agreed to the replacement in the table of medical services of current items 792 and 797 by new items 791 and 793 containing revised descriptions of the medical services to which the items relate. These amendments had been recommended by the Medical Benefits Schedule Revision Committee, an advisory body consisting of 5 representatives of the Australian Medical Association and 5 Commonwealth officers.
New item 791 relates only to ultrasound examination by ultrasonic cross-sectional echography where the patient is not referred by a medical practitioner. New item 793 relates only to ultrasound examination by cross-sectional echography where the patient is referred by a medical practitioner who is not a member of the same
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successful study, a high response rate from subjects is needed, but, because of the impracticality of removing details of each subject’s identity before the records are analysed, protection of the privacy of the individuals involved in the study is regarded as paramount. Consequently the Ministers for Health and National Development and Energy have approved the incorporation of the ‘Atomic Test Personnel Study’ in regulations under the Act.