Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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HEALTH INSURANCE (1992-1993 DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING SERVICES TABLE) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1993 NO. 152

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 1993 No. 152

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Health

Health Insurance Act 1973

Health Insurance (1992-1993 Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations (Amendment)

The Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) provides for payments by way of medicare benefits, payment for hospital services and payments for matters concerning related committees and tribunals.

Section 133 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act.

Section 4AA of the Act provides that the regulations may prescribe a table of diagnostic imaging services (the table), in accordance with the form of table set out in Schedule 1 and that, upon commencement of a regulation prescribing the table, it has effect as if it were set out in Schedule 1 in place of the table in that Schedule. The Health Insurance (1992-1993 Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations currently prescribe such a table for the purposes of section 4AA.

Section 9 of the Act provides that medicare benefits shall be calculated by reference to the fees for diagnostic imaging services set out in the table.

The Regulations amend the current table (Statutory Rules 1992 No. 337) by introducing new services, deleting some existing services and amending the descriptions and/or fees of other services.

Changes to the table result largely from ongoing reviews by the Medicare Benefits Consultative Committee designed to ensure that it reflects current medical practice. The major area reviewed was ultrasound services. The restructure of ultrasound resulted in services being defined on an anatomical basis.

Details of the regulations are as follows.

Subregulation 1.1 provided for the Regulations to commence on 1 July 1993.

Subregulation 2.1 provided for the Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations to be amended as set out below.

Subregulation 3.1 introduced an amendment to rule 7 of the Rules of Interpretation by amending the item range to read 55028 to 61109 (inclusive). This consequential amendment was necessary because of the restructure of ultrasound services and the consequent renumbering of items.

Subregulations 3.2 to 3.4 implement a restructure of the general, cardiac and vascular subgroups of the ultrasonic group of items in the table.

Subregulation 3.5 inserted a new subgroup - urological - into the ultrasonic group of items, containing a single item for an ultrasound examination of the prostate.

Subregulations 3.6 and 3.7 amended the description of items in the angiography and report subgroup of the diagnostic radiology group of items in the table. The new descriptions and fees reflect a trend in the storage of angiograms away from film and towards disc or tape.

The Regulations come into effect on 1 July 1993.


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