EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 109
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
HEALTH INSURANCE (VARIATION OF FEES AND MEDICAL SERVICES)
(NO. 32) 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 the calculation of medicare benefits 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.31) Regulations, in pursuance of section 4 of the Act, prescribed the former table of medical services.
Section 9 of the Act provides that medicare benefit shall be calculated by reference to fees for medical services set out in the table of medical services in Schedule 1 to the Act. Medicare benefit is normally payable, in accordance with section 10 of the Act, at a rate of 85% of the relevant fee specified in the table of medical services. An additional amount of medicare benefit is payable where required to ensure that the difference between the benefit normally payable and the fee specified in the table of medical services does not exceed $10.00 in relation to a single professional service, or an aggregate of $150.00 per patient in a year in relation to multiple professional services.
The Government agreed to increases in the fees for the calculation of medicare benefit set out in the table of medical services with effect from 15
June 1984. These increases were recommended by the 1984 Medical Fees Inquiry conducted by Mr Deputy President K.C. McKenzie of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. The amount of the agreed to increases ranges from 7.89% for pathology services to 9.02% for anaesthetic services. The effect of the increases is, for example, to increase the fee specified in the table of medical services for a standard consultation with a general practitioner in New South Wales from $13.80 to $15.00, and to increase the corresponding medicare benefit from $11.75 to $12.75.
The statutory rules repeal the Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (NO. 31) Regulations and prescribe a new table of medical services incorporating the increased fees.
The statutory rules came into operation on 15 June 1984.
Authority: Section 133 of the Health Insurance Act 1973