EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2005 No. 236

 

Health Insurance Act 1973

 

Health Insurance Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 4)

 

 

Subsection 133(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (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.

 

Sections 10 and 20 of the Act provide, in part, for payments of Medicare benefits in respect of professional services rendered to eligible persons.  Section 19A provides that the regulations may prescribe circumstances where Medicare benefits are not payable for services rendered.

 

The purpose of the Regulations is to amend the Health Insurance Regulations 1975 to allow for the payment of Medicare benefits for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) diagnostic serology testing.

 

In launching the “National HIV/AIDS Strategy 2005-2008: Revitalising Australia’s Response”, the Minister for Health and Ageing announced the Australian Government’s decision to make diagnostic testing for HIV/AIDS available under the Medical Benefits Scheme.

 

The amendment deletes paragraph 14(2)(g) of the Health Insurance Regulations 1975 which currently prohibits the payment of Medicare benefits for professional services rendered in relation to the detection of HIV.

 

The two peak pathology bodies, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) and the Australian Association of Pathology Practices (AAPP) through the Pathology Services Table Committee supported the decision to make diagnostic testing for HIV/AIDS available under the Medical Benefits Scheme.

 

The Act specified no conditions to be met before the power to make the Regulations was exercised.

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

The Regulations commenced on the day after they were registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.