HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 328

HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 328

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 328

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

Health Insurance Act 1973

Health Insurance Regulations (Amendment)

The Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) provides for payments by way of medicare benefits, payments for hospital services and the imposition of certain requirements in relation to those payments.

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

As amended by the Health Legislation (Powers of- Investigation) Amendment Act 1994, subsection 23DKA(1) of the Act provides for the making of regulations to impose requirements relating to the preparation and maintenance of records of pathology services.

The new regulations, which are modelled on existing Regulation 20 of the Health Insurance Regulations, impose essentially the same requirements on the preparation and maintenance of records of pathology services as those which already apply to the preparation and maintenance of records of diagnostic imaging services.

Subregulation 2.1 inserts a new regulation 16A which provides that an approved pathology authority must keep records of pathology services rendered in an accredited pathology laboratory of which the authority is the proprietor.

The subregulation also provides that the record of each pathology service rendered must include a copy of the report of the service. In addition, it provides that the records must be kept in a manner that enables information to be retrieved from pathology records on the basis of the name of the person to whom the service was rendered and the date on which the service was rendered.

The Regulations commence on gazettal.

The Minute recommends that Regulations be made in the form proposed.