1 After section 19AB
19ABA Medicare benefits not payable in
respect of services rendered by doctors who breach certain contracts with the
Commonwealth
(1) Despite section 19AA, a medicare benefit is not payable in respect of
a professional service rendered by, or on behalf of, a medical practitioner
who has breached a contract with the Commonwealth under which the practitioner
agreed to work in a rural or remote area.
(2) The period during which medicare benefits are not payable under
subsection (1) is a period equal to twice the length of the period that
the practitioner agreed, under the contract, to work in the rural or remote
area or such shorter period as is determined in, or in accordance with, the
contract.
(3) Subsections (1) and (2) apply whether or not the medical practitioner
referred to in those subsections was a medical practitioner at the time of
entering the contract or at the time of the breach.
Application
(4) This
section applies to contracts entered into after the commencement of this
section.
2 Section 19CC
3 At the end of section 19CC