Private Health Insurance (Prostheses) Amendment Rules 2013 (No 4) [F2013L01839] -Concluded matters [2014] AUSStaCSDLM 95 (14 May 2014)

• Private Health Insurance (Prostheses) Amendment Rules 2013 (No. 4) [F2013L01839]

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Private Health Insurance (Prostheses) Amendment Rules 2013 (No. 4) [F2013L01839]

Purpose	Corrects drafting errors in the principal rules
Last day to disallow	4 March 2014
Authorising legislation	Private Health Insurance Act 2007
Department	Health

Issue:

Whether any person disadvantaged by previous error

This instrument was made to correct a number of drafting errors in the Private Health Insurance (Prostheses) Rules 2013 (No.1) (the principal rules), which lists the kinds of prostheses in relation to which specified (minimum and maximum) benefits will be paid. The ES for the instrument states that these include:

• the correcting of errors in the product details for billing code WC312;

• the correcting of the amount of minimum benefit payable by insurers for billing codes BS082, MH014, MH015, BS171, OL009, WC213, OL010, ST884, BR005, BR006, SHV01, SHV02 and SHV03;

• the reinsertion of a number of billing codes inadvertently deleted from the principal rules;

• the moving of billing code HW517 to its correct product group; and

• the addition of a number of billing codes incorrectly omitted from the principal rules.

The committee's usual approach where an instrument corrects drafting errors of this nature is that the ES address the question of whether any person was disadvantaged by any of the errors and, if so, whether and what steps have been taken to address that disadvantage [the committee therefore requested further information from the minister].

MINISTER'S RESPONSE:

The Minister for Health advised that 'there was a low risk that the correction of drafting errors would be disadvantageous to persons'. The minister stated that the department had taken steps 'to mitigate the risk of disadvantage' and 'notified stakeholders of the changes in advance of the rules commencing' by circulating Private Health Insurance Circular (PHI 72/13) on 1 November 2013.

COMMITTEE RESPONSE:

The committee thanks the minister for his response and has concluded its interest in the matter.