The Parliament of the

Commonwealth of Australia

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Presented and read a first time

Health Insurance Amendment (Rural and Remote Area Medical Practitioners) Bill 2000

No. , 2000

(Health and Aged Care)

A Bill for an Act to amend the Health Insurance Act 1973, and for related purposes

ISBN: 0642 450730

Contents

A Bill for an Act to amend the Health Insurance Act 1973, and for related purposes

The Parliament of Australia enacts:

1 Short title This Act may be cited as the Health Insurance Amendment (Rural and Remote Area Medical Practitioners) Act 2000.

2 Commencement This Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

3 Schedule(s) Each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1--Amendment of the Health Insurance Act 1973

1 After section 19AB

Insert:

19ABA Medicare benefits not payable in respect of services rendered by doctors who breach certain contracts with the Commonwealth (1) Despite section 19AA, a medicare benefit is not payable in respect of a professional service rendered by, or on behalf of, a medical practitioner who has breached a contract with the Commonwealth under which the practitioner agreed to work in a rural or remote area.

(2) The period during which medicare benefits are not payable under subsection (1) is a period equal to twice the length of the period that the practitioner agreed, under the contract, to work in the rural or remote area or such shorter period as is determined in, or in accordance with, the contract.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) apply whether or not the medical practitioner referred to in those subsections was a medical practitioner at the time of entering the contract or at the time of the breach.

Application

(4) This section applies to contracts entered into after the commencement of this section.

2 Section 19CC

Omit "or 19AB", substitute ", 19AB or 19ABA".

Note: The heading to section 19CC is altered by omitting "or section 19AB" and substituting ", 19AB or 19ABA".

3 At the end of section 19CC

Add:

Note: For the purposes of sections 19AA and 19AB, professional service is defined in section 19AA. Professional service, when used in section 19ABA, is defined in subsection 3(1).