Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO. 61

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 1997 NO. 61

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Health and Family Services

Health Insurance Act 1973

Health Insurance Regulations (Amendment)

The Health Insurance Act 1973 ("the Act") provides in part for the recognition of certain medical practitioners who are in approved placements.

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

The Health Insurance Amendment Act (No. 2) 1996 introduced minimum proficiency requirements that medical practitioners must meet before the services they provide attract Medicare benefits.

New doctors are not recorded as medical practitioners for the purposes of Medicare unless they fall into one of a number of classes e.g. a specialist or a General Practitioner. These classes are listed in section 19AA of the Act. One of the classes listed includes doctors working in an approved placement for a specific purpose such as a participant in a training program leading to a specialist qualification. Before a doctor can be recognised in this category the Health Insurance Commission must have written notification from an approved body e.g. the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), that the person is a participant in an approved program e.g. the RACGP Training Program.

Subsection 3GA(5) of the Act relevantly provides that a body specified in Regulations may inform the Health Insurance Commission that a person is enrolled in a course or program specified in the Regulations.

Health Insurance Regulation 6E specifies that bodies, programs and qualifications approved for the purposes of paragraph 3GA (5) (a) of the Act are to be set out in Schedules to the Regulations

Schedule 1A - Part 2 of the Regulations lists the specified programs and the bodies approving those programs for the purposes of section 3GA of the Act.

The amendment adds to the list in Schedule I A - Part 2 the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services as an approved body and the Rural Locum Relief Program as an approved program for the purposes of section 3GA of the Act. The amendment is necessary in order to allow doctors who completed their intern year or period of supervised training, after 1 November 1997, and are ineligible to attract Medicare benefits for their services unless they are in an approved placement, to take up employment opportunities as locum relief in rural communities.

The Regulations commenced on Gazettal.


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