EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO. 275
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
HEALTH INSURANCE (VARIATION OF FEES AND MEDICAL SERVICES) (NO. 43) REGULATIONS
Section 133 of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (“the Act”) provides in part 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.
Section 9 of the Act provides that medicare benefits shall be calculated by reference to the fees for medical services set out in the table of medical services in Schedule 1 to the Act.
Section 4 of the Act provides that the table of medical services may be varied or replaced by regulations, and that regulations replacing such a table may be amended by regulations. Sub-section 4(6) provides that such regulations shall, unless sooner repealed, cease to be in force on the day next following the fifteenth sitting day of the House of Representatives after the expiration of a period of 12 months commencing on the day on which the regulations are notified in the Gazette.
The Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical
Services) (No. 37) Regulations (“the Regulations”), as amended, prescribe the present table of medical services pursuant to section 4 of the Act. The present table is set out in the Schedule to the Regulations, as are the Rules for the interpretation of the table of medical services. The Regulations will cease to be in force on 9 October 1986.
The Minister for Health has decided that a new table of medical services will come into force on 1 November 1986. In order to provide for the period between 9 October 1986 and 1 November 1986, the Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 43) Regulations will repeal the Regulations and prescribe a new table of medical services which is identical to the present table. In this way, the administration of the medicare benefits system will not be interrupted.
Regulation 2 provides for the new table to come into operation on 1 October 1986.