HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 413

HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 413

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 413

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 payment by way of medicare benefits for pathology services.

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

Subsection 16A(4) of the Act provides that a request to or by an approved pathology practitioner for a pathology service will not be one in respect of which medicare is payable unless it is made or confirmed in writing.

Paragraph 16A(12)(a) of the Act provides that a reference to a request or confirmation made in writing in section 16A of the Act shall be read as including a request or confirmation made in such other form as the Minister shall, from time to time, approve.

Regulation 2.1 inserts a new regulation 9A in the Health Insurance Regulations which provides that if for the purposes of section 16A of the Act a request for a pathology service is made or confirmed by electronic means, and a practitioner is identified in the request or confirmation or by the electronic system used to make the request or confirmation as the source of the request or confirmation, the request or confirmation is taken to have been made by that practitioner unless he or she can prove the contrary.

The Regulations came into effect on Gazettal.