Health Insurance (Professional Services Review) Regulations 1999
Statutory Rules 1999 No. 258
I, WILLIAM PATRICK DEANE, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following Regulations under the Health Insurance Act 1973.
Dated 20 October 1999.
WILLIAM DEANE
Governor-General
By His Excellency’s Command,
michael wooldridge
Minister for Health and Aged Care

Health Insurance (Professional Services Review) Regulations 1999
Statutory Rules 1999 No. 2581
made under the
Health Insurance Act 1973

Contents
	Page
Part 1	Introductory
	1	Name of Regulations	2
	2	Commencement	2
	3	Definition	2
Part 2	Adequate and contemporaneous records
	4	Purpose of this Part	3
	5	An adequate record	3
	6	A contemporaneous record	3

Part 1	Introductory
1	Name of Regulations
		These Regulations are the Health Insurance (Professional Services Review) Regulations 1999.
2	Commencement
		These Regulations commence on 1 November 1999.
3	Definition
		In these Regulations:
Act means the Health Insurance Act 1973.
Note   The expressions adequate and contemporaneous records, practitioner and service are defined in s 81 of the Act. 
Part 2	Adequate and contemporaneous records
4	Purpose of this Part
		This Part sets out the standards to be met in order that a practitioner’s records of the rendering or initiation of services be adequate and contemporaneous records.
Note   See subs 82 (3) of the Act for the significance of adequate and contemporaneous records.
5	An adequate record
		For the definition of adequate and contemporaneous records in section 81 of the Act, the standard to be met in order that a record of service rendered or initiated be adequate is that:
	(a)	the record clearly identify the name of the patient; and
	(b)	the record contain a separate entry for each attendance by the patient for a service and the date on which the service was rendered or initiated; and
	(c)	each entry provide clinical information adequate to explain the type of service rendered or initiated; and
	(d)	each entry be sufficiently comprehensible that another practitioner, relying on the record, can effectively undertake the patient’s ongoing care.
6	A contemporaneous record
		For the definition of adequate and contemporaneous records in section 81 of the Act, the standard to be met in order that a record of a service rendered or initiated be contemporaneous, is that record must be completed:
	(a)	at the time the practitioner rendered or initiated the service; or
	(b)	as soon as practicable after the service was rendered or initiated by the practitioner.

Note
1.	Made by the Governor-General on 20 October 1999, and notified in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 27 October 1999.