Commonwealth Numbered Acts

NATIONAL HEALTH AMENDMENT ACT 1976 No. 60, 1976 - SECT 14

14. Section 59 of the Principal Act is repealed and the following section
substituted:- Commonwealth benefit not payable where compensation, &c., is
payable to patient.

''59. (1) Where-

   (a)  the proprietor of an approved nursing home has lodged a claim for
        Commonwealth benefit in respect of a person who is, or was, a
        qualified nursing home patient in the nursing home receiving
        nursing home care in the course of treatment of, or as a result of, an
        injury; and

   (b)  the patient has received, or established his right to receive, in
        respect of that injury, a payment by way of compensation or damages
        (including a payment in settlement of a claim for compensation or
        damages) under the law that is or was in force in a State or internal
        Territory, being a payment the amount of which was, in the opinion of
        the Minister, determined having regard to any expenses in respect of
        nursing home care incurred, or likely to be incurred (whether by the
        patient or by another person) in the course of the treatment of, or as
        a result of, that injury, the Minister may determine that the whole or
        a specified part of the payment referred to in paragraph (b) shall,
        for the purposes of this section, be deemed to relate to the expenses
        incurred in respect of the nursing home care referred to in paragraph
        (a).

''(2) Where-

   (a)  the Minister has made a determination under sub-section (1); and

   (b)  the amount of the Commonwealth benefit that would, but for this
        section, be payable in respect of the days on which the patient to
        whom the determination relates occupies a bed for the purpose of
        receiving nursing home care to which the determination relates is not
        in excess of the amount so determined, Commonwealth benefit is not
        payable in respect of those days.

''(3) Where-

   (a)  the Minister has made a determination under sub-section (1); and

   (b)  the amount of the Commonwealth benefit that would, but for this
        section, be payable in respect of days on which the patient to whom
        the determination relates occupies a bed for the purpose of receiving
        nursing home care to which the determination relates is in excess of
        the amount so determined, the amount of the Commonwealth benefit in
        respect of those days shall not exceed the amount of that excess.

''(4) Where, at the time at which a claim for Commonwealth benefit is lodged,
it appears to the Minister that the claim may become a claim that will give
rise to a determination under sub-section (1), the Minister may direct that no
Commonwealth benefit be paid at that time in respect of the claim but that
there be made to the claimant a provisional payment of such amount of
Commonwealth benefit as the Minister thinks fit.

''(5) If and when a determination under sub-section (1) is made with respect
to a claim referred to in sub-section (4), the claimant is liable to repay to
the Commonwealth-

   (a)  where, by virtue of sub-section (2), no Commonwealth benefit is
        payable in respect of any days on which the patient to whom the
        determination relates occupies a bed for the purpose of receiving the
        nursing home care to which the determination relates-an amount equal
        to the provisional payment; or

   (b)  in any other case-the amount by which the amount of the provisional
        payment exceeds the amount of the Commonwealth benefit payable in
        respect of the days on which the patient to whom the determination
        relates occupies a bed for the purpose of receiving the nursing home
        care to which the determination relates.

''(6) An amount that a person is liable to repay under sub-section (5) is
recoverable as a debt due to the Commonwealth.

''(7) In this section, 'injury' includes a disease.''.