EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Veterans' Affairs (Peacetime Service Eligibility for Non-Liability Health Care) Amendment Instrument 2014
EMPOWERING PROVISION
Paragraph 88A(2) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (the Act or the VEA).
PURPOSE
The attached instrument (2014 No.R115) varies the Veterans’ Affairs (Peacetime Service Eligibility for Non-Liability Health Care) Instrument 2014 (Instrument 2014 No. R18) (NLHC instrument).
The NLHC instrument enables the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) to pay for treatment of various mental health conditions suffered by eligible members and former members of the Defence Force (entitled persons).
The treatment is known as “non liability health care” because it need not be linked to any service of the entitled person.
The issue with the NLHC instrument that the attached instrument addressed was that previously only a psychiatrist, or a medical practitioner who was qualified in the area of a relevant condition, could diagnose a relevant condition in order for DVA to be able to pay for treatment of the condition.
Limiting the health care providers who could diagnose the relevant conditions to a psychiatrist or an especially qualified medical practitioner proved too restrictive and inhibiting on enabling entitled persons to seek treatment for their conditions.
Further, the requirement that a medical practitioner be especially qualified to diagnose a relevant condition i.e. a medical practitioner “...who, in the opinion of the Repatriation Commission, is qualified in the area of [one of the relevant conditions]”, was difficult to administer.
Accordingly the attached instrument has made a number of variations to the NLHC instrument. Firstly it has enabled DVA to be able to pay for treatment of a relevant condition if the condition has been diagnosed by a medical practitioner who is a general practitioner, rather than by a medical practitioner with special expertise in the relevant condition only.
The term “general practitioner” is defined by the attached instrument with reference to the Treatment Principles where the term is further defined by reference to subsection 3(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973. The term “general practitioner” covers a narrower field of medical practitioners than does the term “medical practitioner”.
Secondly, it dispensed with the requirement that the medical practitioner (now a general practitioner) needed to be especially qualified in one of the relevant conditions and, thirdly, it introduced a new category of health care provider who may diagnose one of the relevant conditions, namely a clinical psychologist. A psychiatrist is still able to diagnose one of the relevant conditions.
Treatment of mental health conditions of service and ex service personnel is a high Government priority. By enabling general practitioners per se and clinical psychologists to diagnose the relevant conditions the potential for treatment of these conditions is significantly increased.
CONSULTATION
No. The measures are required as a matter of urgency. Increased access to treatment is in issue. It is noted that under paragraph 18(2)(b) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 an example of a situation where consultation may be inappropriate in relation to a legislative instrument is where the instrument is required as a matter of urgency.
In any event, the measures are beneficial and interested parties could reasonably be expected to agree to them.
RETROSPECTIVITY
None.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED-BY-REFERENCE
No.
HUMAN RIGHTS STATEMENT
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
The attached legislative instrument engages and promotes the Right to Health contained in article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.
The changes made by the attached instrument are intended to advance the health of an entitled person in that the changes will make it easier for a person who suffers from a relevant mental health condition to be able to access treatment under DVA arrangements because the diagnosis of the condition may now be made by any medical practitioner who is a general practitioner, rather than by a medical practitioner with special expertise in the relevant condition, and a diagnosis may now also be made by a clinical psychologist, which was not the case previously.
It is considered that the attached instrument is compatible with Human Rights.
Michael Ronaldson
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Rule-Maker
FURTHER EXPLANATION OF NEW PROVISIONS
See: Attachment A
Attachment A
Section 1
This section sets out the name of the instrument – the Veterans’ Affairs (Peacetime Service Eligibility for Non-Liability Health Care) Amendment Instrument 2014.
Section 2
This section provides that the instrument commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.
Schedule 1
This Schedule varies the Veterans’ Affairs (Peacetime Service Eligibility for Non-Liability Health Care) Instrument 2014.
Items 1 and 2
These items are definition sections and are the provisions that have the effect of enabling, in conjunction with other provisions, the diagnosing of the relevant conditions by a general practitioner or a clinical psychologist (or a psychiatrist).