EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Treatment (Revocation) Determination

Instrument No. M20 of 2004

(Section 286 Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004)

The Purpose and Operation of the Attached Instrument

• To revoke MRCA Instrument No.3 of 2004 (Determination for Providing Treatment) that applied (with modifications):

(i)                the Treatment Principles;

(ii)             the Repatriation Private Patient Principles; and

(iii)          the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme;

made under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA) to persons entitled to treatment under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA).

• Essentially the current exercise is a drafting exercise.  The Determination for Providing Treatment was difficult to apply because rather than set out treatment-conditions in the body of the Instrument it incorporated-by-reference the VEA-Instruments mentioned above (with modifications).  In order to apply the Determination, it needed to be read in conjunction with the three VEA-Instruments which could be laborious and time-consuming.

• Accordingly, the Determination for Providing Treatment is revoked by the attached Instrument and will be replaced by separate "stand alone" Instruments that will cover the three treatments encompassed by the Determination, namely: medical and allied health treatment; private-patient hospital treatment; and pharmaceutical benefit treatment.  Put simply, the Determination for Providing Treatment has been divided into three separate instruments.

• Another reason for revoking the Determination for Providing Treatment and re-making it (albeit as three separate instruments) is that two of the three VEA-Instruments on which it is based, namely the Treatment Principles and the Repatriation Private Patient Principles, have been amended and the policy is that health care instruments under Chapter 6 of the MRCA are to mirror, as far as possible, the relevant health care instruments under the VEA so as to ensure that beneficiaries under both the VEA and the MRCA are entitled to treatment on the same terms.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

None.

Consultation

• No consultation was undertaken in relation to the attached Instrument because the Rule-Maker (in this case the MRCC) did not consider that general consultation was appropriate because, while the Instrument revoked the Determination For Providing Treatment, nevertheless the three new Instruments that would flow from the Determination will be essentially the same as the Determination.

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