EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1985 NO. 217
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
MILITARY FINANCIAL REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The Military Financial Regulations (“the Regulations”), made under the Defence Act 1903, prescribe certain financial conditions of service for members of the Army.
Background
Members of the Defence Force receive free medical and dental treatment to maintain the level of health and fitness required for Defence Force service. However, it is the practice for the Commonwealth to recover the costs of treatment where the necessity for the treatment arose in circumstances which give a member an enforceable claim against another person (eg, a motor vehicle accident).
Regulation 262 of the Regulations, enables a determination to be made requiring a member of the Army who has an enforceable claim against another person to repay to the Commonwealth, subject to the comments below, the cost of treatment. The amount set out in the determination is then included by the member in the member’s claim against the other person.
In practice, where a member has such a claim, the member is not required to repay to the Commonwealth the costs incurred on the member’s behalf unless and until the member receives damages in respect of those costs.
Where treatment is provided by a non-Commonwealth hospital the amount to be recovered is established by the account or accounts rendered by the hospital. However, where treatment is provided by a service or Repatriation hospital, since there is no requirement for the Commonwealth to bill itself for the treatment of members of the Defence Force, no specific calculations are made of the cost of treating a particular Defence Force patient. The cost of medical and dental treatment in a service or Repatriation hospital is accordingly assessed at a daily average rate which includes the cost to the hospital of providing the treatment as well as a proportion of normal hospital running costs.
Paragraph 262(1)(c) of the Regulations, provides that the amount recoverable from a member who has received medical or dental treatment as an in-patient of a service or Repatriation hospital in a State is not to exceed the amounts set out for that State, for the period during which treatment occurred, in Schedule 1 to the Regulations.
Schedule 1 was inserted to overcome the difficulties encountered in legal proceedings of proving that the amount which a member was liable to repay to the Commonwealth did not exceed the expense incurred by the Commonwealth in providing treatment, by deeming the prescribed scale of rates to be the cost of a member’s treatment in a service or Repatriation hospital.
The rates adopted are those prepared by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for internal costing purposes, showing the cost per bed per day per patient in a Repatriation hospital in the various States. That Department has now advised updated rates which more accurately reflect the cost involved for the period commencing 1 July 1982.
Military Financial Regulations (Amendment)
The Statutory Rule amends Schedule 1 to the Regulations by omitting Item 7, substituting a new Item 7 and inserting Items 8, 9 and 10. The amendment increases the maximum amount recoverable for in-patient treatment in a service or Repatriation hospital during the period commencing on 1 July 1982 to the new
daily rates as advised by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The new rates apply for the purposes of determinations made after the commencement of the Statutory Rule.
Commencement
The Statutory Rule comes into operation on the date of gazettal.