EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 NO. 43
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH NURSING HOMES ASSISTANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 37 of the Nursing Homes Assistance Act 1974 (‘the Act’) provides 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.
Sub-section 3(1) of the Act defines a “Government nursing home” as “a prescribed nursing home conducted by or on behalf of the Commonwealth or a State”.
By virtue of sub-section 3(2) of that Act, the effect of prescribing a nursing home as a “Government nursing home” is to exclude the home from the operation of that Act. A nursing home so excluded is precluded from entering into an agreement with the Commonwealth under which the Commonwealth agrees to meet any approved deficit incurred by the home in a financial year.
By virtue of regulation 4B of the National Health Regulations, each of the nursing homes specified as a prescribed “Government nursing home” in the Nursing Homes Assistance Regulations is also a prescribed nursing home for the purposes of the definition of “Government nursing home” in sub-section 4(1) of the National Health Act 1953. This device obviates the need to amend both the Nursing Homes Assistance Regulations and the National Health Regulations when changes are made to the category of “Government nursing homes”.
A nursing home approved under the National Health Act 1953, when prescribed as a “Government nursing home” for the purposes of that Act, is exempt from conditions of approval which are applicable to other nursing homes approved under that Act, including conditions which relate to the level of fees to be charged, the maximum number of beds to be made available to nursing home patients, and the admission of patients. Although exempt from these conditions, such a nursing home will remain eligible for the
payment of nursing home benefits under the National Health Act. Because it is also prescribed as a “Government nursing home” for the purposes of the Nursing Homes Assistance Act, such a nursing home is, as indicated above, precluded from entering into an agreement under the deficit financing arrangements.
Regulation 4 of the Nursing Homes Assistance Regulations provides that the nursing homes specified in Schedule 1 to those regulations are prescribed nursing homes for the purposes of the definition of “Government nursing home” in sub-section 3(1) of the Act. It is necessary from time to time to bring up to date the list of nursing homes in Schedule 1. To this end, the statutory rules prescribe 11 further nursing homes as “Government nursing homes” and revise the description of the premises of 7 nursing homes already prescribed.
The statutory rules came into operation on the date of their notification in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette.