EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO. 377
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973
HEALTH INSURANCE (VARIATION OF FEES AND MEDICAL SERVICES) (NO. 45) REGULATIONS
Section 133 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 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 general medical services in Schedule 1 to the Act. Schedule 1 contains items setting out the description of each medical service, the fee for the calculation of medicare benefit applicable in each State and rules for the interpretation of the table.
Section 4 of the Act provides that the table of general medical services may be varied or replaced by regulations. The Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 44) Regulations (Statutory Rules 1986 No. 318) prescribe the present table of general medical services pursuant to section 4 of the Act.
In the course of preparation of those Regulations, an incorrect fee was included in the table of general medical services. The fee in respect of item 4825 - central vein catheterisation by open exposure, using subcutaneous tunnel with pump or access port as with a Hickman or Broviac catheter in children under the age of 12 years, performed with 12 anaesthetic units - was prescribed as $156.00 for all States, whereas it should have been $200.00 for all States.
The Health Insurance (Variation of Fees and Medical Services) (No. 45) Regulations rectify this error by prescribing the appropriate fee.
Regulation 2 provides for the Regulations to come into operation on 19 December 1986.