Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the members for their contributions to the debate on the Dental Benefits Legislation Amendment Bill 2014. The bill amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to allow for better process for waiving debts for dentists under the former Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme. The bill also allows for critical changes for the efficient operation of the Child Dental Benefit Schedule.

The Chronic Disease Dental Scheme was introduced in 2007 by the former coalition government. The scheme provided more than 20 million services to more than one million patients, 80 per cent of whom were concession card holders. It was the most significant dental investment since Federation. It was shut down the former Labor government because it was established by Tony Abbott who was health minister—nothing more and nothing less. The scheme was shut down by the Gillard government for political reasons, not through any other reason that those opposite have been trying to mislead themselves and others into believing. In fact, the arguments proffered by those opposite would seem quite contradictory. On the one hand, they talk about the link between oral health and chronic disease, yet on the other hand they slam a scheme which was established to address that very issue. To make things worse, the incompetent Gillard administration, in their political pursuit of Tony Abbott getting credit for the investment into these dental services vilified dentists across the country. It was a shameful act but one of many by the Gillard government.

The Chronic Disease Dental Scheme included technical reporting requirements which necessitated dentists providing treatment plans to general practitioners, along with a quote and treatment plan to patients before starting treatment. Dentists who did not meet these technical reporting requirements have been pursued for repayment of the full amount of the Medicare benefits paid under this scheme, although in most cases these dentists met all the other requirements of the scheme and provided much-needed services to over one million patients suffering from chronic diseases. These dentists did nothing more than make minor paperwork errors. I made it very clear on several occasions in the House and publicly that recovery of the full benefit was an excessive punishment for a minor technical issue of overlooking a paperwork requirement and, worse still, it was politically motivated.

But, rather than seek to redress this paperwork issue through design changes to the scheme—a proposal for which I offered my full support whilst we were in opposition to the then Labor government—the then Labor government chose to use dentists' technical oversight as a means of discrediting the scheme, shutting it down and leaving thousands of patients without access to dental treatment; again, all in pursuit of a political outcome.

The Department of Human Services sought to redress the debt issue by applying the Minister for Finance to waive these debts under section 34 of the Financial Management and Accountability Act of 1997. This process has so far been extremely time consuming and resource intensive. It has also created anxiety and uncertainty for dentists who have been waiting for long periods of time to find out if their debts have been waived.

This bill will relieve the uncertainty for dentists by allowing for faster processing of the waivers. It also does this by allowing the Chief Executive Medicare to waive the debts of those dentists who provided services in good faith but did not meet the paperwork requirements.

As I have clearly stated previously, this amendment will not excuse the very small number of dentists who did not comply with other legal requirements of the scheme or who committed fraud. Fraud happens in every large government program, and we have a zero tolerance for such acts, including in relation to these. Only those dentists who provided services in good faith will be eligible to have their debt waived and, as I have said before, we know that these dentists are in the vast majority.

This bill also amends the Health Insurance Act of 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act of 2008 to introduce crucial changes for the operation of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. To ensure that compliance audits of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule are more effective and efficient, this bill introduces amendments which will bring the compliance framework for the Child Dental Benefit Schedule into greater alignment with Medicare's compliance framework. It does so by including the power to compel the provider to comply with a request to produce documents to substantiate the payment of benefits.

This bill also includes a power that will enable the Chief Executive Medicare, or a relevant officer of the Department of Human Services, to give a notice to a provider requiring them to produce documents to a practitioner or another relevant person to confirm appropriate Medicare claiming is occurring.

The bill also amends the Health Insurance Act of 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act 2008 so that the provisions of the Professional Services Review scheme, which can investigate cases of inappropriate practice, can be applied to any dental services provided under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. These critical amendments to the child dental benefits scheme will make the schedule more efficient and help to ensure that Commonwealth funding is being used appropriately, assisting to promote a more consistent compliance structure for both Medicare and dental programs operating under the Dental Benefits Act 2008.

This government is committed to improving the health outcomes for Australians and ensuring efficient and effective delivery of services. These amendments are in keeping with our commitments and, in commending this bill to the House, I indicate for the benefit of the House that the government will not be supporting the amendment put forward by the honourable member for Ballarat, but I commend this bill to the House.

Question negatived.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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