Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

NATIONAL HEALTH ACT 1953 - SECT 48A

             (1)  Subject to this Part, Part VC and Part VD the proprietor of a transferred home or of an adjusted fee government nursing home is entitled to receive benefit in respect of each approved nursing home patient or Repatriation nursing home patient for each day on which the patient receives nursing home care in the home.

             (2)  Subject to subsections (2A), (3) and (4), the benefit that the proprietor of the nursing home is entitled to receive under subsection (1), in respect of each approved nursing home patient and each Repatriation nursing home patient occupying a bed other than an exempt bed, is equal to the difference between:

                     (a)  the notional fee; and

                     (b)  the amount for the time being applicable for the purpose of subparagraph 47(2)(b)(iii).

          (2A)  The benefit payable under subsection (1) in respect of each approved nursing home patient and each Repatriation nursing home patient occupying an exempt bed in a nursing home is equal to the difference between:

                     (a)  the reference fee, within the meaning of section 39, in relation to that patient; and

                     (b)  the sum of:

                              (i)  the amount for the time being applicable for the purposes of subparagraph 47(2)(b)(iii); and

                             (ii) an amount equal to the proportion of the additional exempt bed fee, within the meaning of section 39, that the proprietor agreed, in the proprietor's application for exempt bed status in respect of beds in that home, should be taken into account in reducing the Commonwealth benefit payable from time to time in respect of each of those beds if the application were granted.

             (3)  In relation to a patient who is entitled to be provided with medical treatment under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 in respect of war‑caused injury or disease, subsection (2) has effect as if the amount being taken into account for the purpose of paragraph (2)(b) were the amount per day that the patient is liable to pay for nursing home care provided under that Act.

             (4)  If the Secretary is satisfied that, because of special circumstances related to the capacity of a patient in a transferred home to pay fees for nursing home care, the benefit that the proprietor is entitled to receive in respect of the patient should be increased, the Secretary may, by written instrument, determine that the amount to be taken into account under paragraph (2)(b) shall be decreased to the amount specified in the determination, and subsection (2) shall have effect accordingly.

             (5)  This section does not apply in respect of a day on or after the day on which the Aged Care Act 1997 (other than Division 1 of that Act) commences.