EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Subject - Health Insurance Act 1973
Health Insurance (Variation of Pathology Services Table) Regulations
1989 No. 198
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNITY SERVICES AND HEALTH
Section 18 of the Community Services and Health Legislation Amendment Act 1989 (the Amendment Act) repeals Schedule 1A of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) and provides for the insertion of a new Schedule, which is set out in the Schedule to the Amendment Act. The new Schedule 1A is a new pathology services table providing a schedule of fees for pathology services and replacing the pathology services table which came into operation on 1 August 1986.
Section 4A of the Act, inserted by section 11 of the Amendment Act, provides for the variation or amendment of the pathology services table by way of Regulations.
The Regulations correct a number of minor errors in the table of pathology services which have been identified since the Amendment Act was presented to Parliament.
Examples of the types of errors corrected by the Regulations are:
(a) substitution of incorrect fee amounts appearing in items;
(b) misstatements in items of figures used in describing pathology services;
(c) misstatement of item numbers;
(d) incorrect spelling of medical terms used in the table;
(e) incorrect punctuation;
(f) omissions of part of a description of a pathology service covered in an item;
(g) deletion of a pathology service, item number and fee wrongly included in the table;
(h) misstatement of an abbreviation for individual tests.
Section 4 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides that instruments of an administrative character, including Regulations, may be made before the Act conferring that power comes into operation.
The Regulations are effective from 1 August 1989, the same date of effect as the new pathology services table.