ATTACHMENT

 

Details of the Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations 2017

 

Section 1 - Name

 

This section provides for the Regulations to be referred to as the Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations 2017.

 

Section 2 - Commencement

 

This section provides for the Regulations to commence on the day after it is registered on the FRL.

 

Section 3 - Authority 

 

This section provides that the Regulations are made under the Health Insurance Act 1973.

 

Section 4 - Schedule(s)

 

This section provides that each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms.

 

Section 5 - Diagnostic imaging services table

 

This section provides that the new table of diagnostic imaging services set out in Schedule 1 be prescribed for subsection 4AA(1) of the Act.

 

Section 6 - Dictionary

 

This section provides for a Dictionary in Part 3 of Schedule 1 at the end of the Regulations.

 

Schedule 1 - Diagnostic imaging services table

 

This part of the Regulations will remake the existing diagnostic imaging services table, which is currently prescribed by the Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulation 2016.

 

The Regulations also make the following machinery amendments to the previous table:

 

Incorporated documents

The Regulations incorporate three documents in the existing diagnostic imaging services table per the requirements in the Legislation Act 2003:

*         Clause 2.4.4 incorporates the Requirements for PET Accreditation (Instrumentation & Radiation Safety) 2nd Edition (2012), issued by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Inc, and the NEMA Standards Publication NU 2-2007, Performance Measurements of Positron Emission Tomographs, published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (USA) - as existing at the time when the proposed Regulations commence.

*         Part 3--Dictionary incorporates the July 2010 edition of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (ABS catalogue number 1216.0), published by the Australian Statistician, as existing at the time when this instrument commences. This is the document that was published in July 2010, and is available at http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/1216.0Main+Features1July%202010. 

 

Professional supervision

This removes the word 'professional' from the phrase 'professional supervision' in clauses 2.1.2, 2.2.1, 2.3.1, 2.3.2 and 2.5.3 and MRI items 64387, 63488, 63489, 63490. The phrase 'professional supervision' does not have a different meaning to 'supervision', and the change is to apply consistent terminology throughout the table.

Schedule 2 - Repeals

 

This section repeals the Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulation 2016.

 

 

 

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011

Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations 2017

 

This Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

 

Overview of the Legislative Instrument

The Regulations amend the DIST and prescribe a new table of diagnostic imaging services. This will ensure that Medicare benefits continue to be payable for diagnostic imaging services listed in the DIST. The Regulations will incorporate three documents per the requirements in the Legislation Act 2003.

Human rights implications

The Regulations engage Articles 9 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), specifically the rights to health and social security.

The Right to Health

The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is contained in Article 12(1) of the ICESCR. The UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (the Committee) has stated that the right to health is not a right for each individual to be healthy, but is a right to a system of health protection which provides equality of opportunity for people to enjoy the highest attainable level of health.

The Committee reports that the ‘highest attainable standard of health' takes into account the country's available resources. This right may be understood as a right of access to a variety of public health and health care facilities, goods, services, programs, and conditions necessary for the realisation of the highest attainable standard of health.

The Right to Social Security

The right to social security is contained in Article 9 of the ICESCR. It requires that a country must, within its maximum available resources, ensure access to a social security scheme that provides a minimum essential level of benefits to all individuals and families that will enable them to acquire at least essential health care. Countries are obliged to demonstrate that every effort has been made to use all resources that are at their disposal in an effort to satisfy, as a matter of priority, this minimum obligation.

The Committee reports that there is a strong presumption that retrogressive measures taken in relation to the right to social security are prohibited under ICESCR. In this context, a retrogressive measure would be one taken without adequate justification that had the effect of reducing existing levels of social security benefits, or of denying benefits to persons or groups previously entitled to them. However, it is legitimate for a Government to re-direct its limited resources in ways that it considers to be more effective at meeting the general health needs of all society, particularly the needs of the more disadvantaged members of society.

Analysis

The Regulations maintain rights to health and social security by ensuring access to publicly subsidised health services which are clinically effective and cost-effective.

Conclusion

The Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights because it maintains existing arrangements and the protection of human rights.

 

Greg Hunt

Minister for Health