Senator COONAN (3:38 PM) —On behalf of the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances, I give notice that, at the giving of notices on the next day of sitting, I shall withdraw Business of the Senate notice of motion No. 1 standing in my name for six sitting days after today for the disallowance of the Health Insurance 1998-1999 Diagnostic Imaging Services Table Amendment Regulations 1999 as contained in Statutory Rules 1999 No. 219, and made under the Health Insurance Act 1973. I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard the committee's correspondence concerning these regulations.

Leave granted.

The documents read as follows—

Health Insurance (1998-99 Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Amendment Regulations 1999 (No.3)

Statutory Rules 1999 No.219

14 October 1999

The Hon Michael Wooldridge MP

Minister for Health and Aged Care

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Minister

I refer to the Health Insurance (1998-99 Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Amendment Regulations 1999 (No.3), Statutory Rules 1999 No.219.

The purpose of these Statutory Rules is to impose a deadline of 11 October 1999 for medical practitioners to complete a statutory declaration to ensure that any diagnostic imaging services that they provide on Magnetic Resonance Imaging Equipment will be eligible for Medicare benefits. The Explanatory Statement notes that the deadline is 2 pm on 11 October, but the Regulations themselves state the deadline merely as 11 October 1999.

Also, no reason is given in the Explanatory Statement or the Regulation Impact Statement of the reason for choosing 11 October as the date of the deadline. The Regulation Impact Statement indicates that the Health Insurance Commission is concerned at the tardiness of some medical practitioners in claiming eligibility for their equipment, some 12 months after the relevant changes were made to the legislation. Nevertheless, the Committee notes that after 12 months of not giving any indication that speed of completing applications was regarded as desirable, the Health Insurance Commission has now imposed a deadline which expired 20 days after the Regulations were made.

The Committee would appreciate your advice on this matter.

Yours sincerely

Helen Coonan

Chair

The Hon Dr Michael Wooldridge

Minister for Health and Aged Care

Senator H. Coonan

Chair

Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Helen

Thank you for your letter of 14 October 1999 concerning the Health Insurance (1998-99 Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Amendment Regulations 1999 (No. 3) Statutory Rules 1999 No 219.

The amendment to the Regulations introduced a deadline by which providers of MRI services were to lodge a statutory declaration in respect of any MRI equipment. As you've noted, this requirement to lodge a declaration was introduced 1 September 1999, at the time that Medicare rebates were made available for MRI scans. Twelve months after that introduction, the Health Insurance Commission was aware that a number of declarations were outstanding. This made it difficult to finalise the number of MRI machines eligible for Medicare benefits. Finalisation of this number was, and is, important in the context of examining how the market has adjusted to the expansion of MRI funding and to develop subsequent policy for Commonwealth funding of MRI services.

It was also considered important in the context of management of the Diagnostic Imagine, Agreement, and the Royal College of Australian and New Zealand also requested that a cut-off date be introduced.

In addition to this, the Health Insurance Commission, in examining the contracts for purchase of some of the MRI machines, detected that there were possible breaches of the Health Insurance Act. This included possible backdating of contracts, to pre-date the Budget night announcement that only MRI machines installed as of 7.30 pm on 12 May 1998, or on order via a binding, written contract, would be eligible for Medicare benefits. In order to assess the magnitude of this problem, the cut-off date was instituted to expedite the lodging of statutory declarations.

To ensure that MRI providers were informed, advertisements were placed in national newspapers on 4 September 1999 advising of the 11 October 1999 cut-off, and a letter sent to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists for advice to their membership.

As you have noted, the explanatory statement declaration refers to a 2pm deadline on October 1999. It had been intended to specify a time to overcome the ambiguity sometimes encountered with the phrase `close of business'. Ultimately, however, it was agreed that a time would not be specified in the regulation, as the aim of the amendment was to finalise the lodgement of the declarations without being overly prescriptive. The Health Insurance Commission has advised that all declarations were provided by 11 October 1999.

I hope this clarifies these issues for the Standing Committee.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely

Dr Michael Wooldridge

26 NOV 1999