HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973 - SECT 129AA Private hospitals--bribery

HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973 - SECT 129AA

  (1A)   A person who, being a practitioner, a participating midwife, a participating nurse practitioner or a medical entrepreneur, without reasonable excuse, asks, receives or obtains, or agrees to receive or obtain, any property, benefit or advantage of any kind for himself or herself or any other person from a proprietor of a private hospital or from a person acting on behalf of such a proprietor on the understanding that the first - mentioned person will, in any manner, do any act or thing the purpose of which is, or the effect of which will be, to enable a person to be admitted as a patient in the hospital, being a patient in respect of whom a benefit is payable by a private health insurer, commits an offence against this section.

  (1B)   A person who, being a proprietor or one of the proprietors of a private hospital or a person acting on behalf of such a proprietor, in order to influence or affect a practitioner, a participating midwife or a participating nurse practitioner in the doing of any act or thing the purpose of which is, or the effect of which will be, to enable a person to be admitted as a patient in the hospital, being a patient in respect of whom a benefit is payable by a private health insurer, without reasonable excuse, gives or confers, or agrees to give or confer, to or on the practitioner, participating midwife, participating nurse practitioner or any other person any property, benefit or advantage of any kind, commits an offence against this section.

  (4)   A person who is convicted of an offence against this section is punishable by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 5 years.

  (5)   In a prosecution of a person for an offence against this section, it is a defence if the conduct in question was in accordance with the standards of professional conduct generally accepted by medical practitioners, midwives or nurse practitioners (as the case requires).

Note:   The defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matter in subsection   (5). See subsection   13.3(3) of the Criminal Code .

  (5A)   If a person is convicted of an offence against this section by virtue of subsection   (1A) or (1B) in relation to the admission of a person as a patient in a hospital, the court may, in addition to imposing a penalty in respect of the offence, order the person to pay a private health insurer an amount equal to the sum of any benefits paid by the insurer in respect of that patient.

  (6)   In this section:

"proprietor" , in relation to a private hospital, means the proprietor, as defined by subsection   3(1), of the premises occupied by the hospital.