Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Health Legislation Amendment (Data-matching) Bill 2019 amends the National Health Act 1953, the Health Insurance Act 1973, the Privacy Act 1988, the Private Health Insurance Act 2007, the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004to support the integrity of Medicare through data matching for Medicare compliance and related purposes, while maintaining strong privacy and data protection provisions.

The overwhelming majority of healthcare providers claim Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Child Dental Benefits appropriately. I want to emphasise that and thank our extraordinary medical workforce and professionals for their cooperation and their incredible patient care.

Unfortunately, we know that a very, very small proportion do not.

It is entirely reasonable for Australians to therefore expect that the government has appropriate systems in place to detect instances of Medicare noncompliance and treatment pathways proportionate to the type of noncompliance detected. This will ensure that every taxpayer dollar of our precious healthcare spend is directed to clinically necessary services for Australians.

While the Commonwealth has sophisticated detection techniques at its disposal, current legislative restrictions are impairing the effective and efficient detection of some cases of Medicare fraud and noncompliance.

Healthcare services provided through Medicare and the Department of Veterans' Affairs were funded by taxpayers to the tune of over $36 billion in 2017-18. The integrity of these programs must be ensured so that Australians can continue to access high-quality, effective health treatments. Every dollar wasted by fraud is a dollar that the government cannot invest in cutting-edge new treatments, like CAR-T therapies for people with blood cancer.

The bill will permit data matching across the MBS and PBS for Medicare compliance purposes. This will enable, for example, the identification of instances where the Commonwealth pays for a PBS medicine that is not actually supplied.

The bill also provides for data matching between the Department of Health and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to ensure that restrictions placed on registered healthcare providers by their professional board are adhered to in Medicare claiming.

It would also allow for therapeutic goods information to be used by the Department of Health to help ensure Medicare claims in relation to unapproved medical devices are appropriate.

Healthcare providers claiming Medicare services for general patients may also claim for services delivered to patients under Department of Veterans' Affairs programs.

The bill supports matching of data from Medicare and the Department of Veterans' Affairs to ensure that services provided under both programs are considered for the purposes of the prescribed pattern of services, where exceeding a certain number of services on a certain number of days may be considered inappropriate practice.

Data-matching with records held by the Department of Home Affairs that indicate whether a person is overseas will allow confirmation that both the healthcare provider and patient were in Australia at the time of their claimed services. Believe it or not, we have actually found instances of fraudulent Medicare billing where either the doctor or the patient for a service billed to Medicare was actually out of the country when the service was supposed to have been provided.

The bill also allows private health insurers to voluntarily share information with the Department of Health for the purposes of detecting fraud and recovering incorrect payments. The bill will not allow the government to share any patient information collected by the government with private health insurers.

While data-matching permitted by the bill will enhance my department's ability to detect Medicare fraud and non-compliance, it will not expand its existing compliance powers. Nor will it change the approach taken by the department in conducting its compliance activities which are designed to be proportionate to the type of non-compliance detected.

The department will continue to engage and consult with professional bodies and other stakeholder groups on its compliance strategies and activities, as well as provide education support resources for health professionals.

I particularly want to thank and acknowledge the very diligent work of both the AMA and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners for their input, advice and consultation in the development of this legislation. They have taken a very responsible approach and that is a credit to the leadership of both organisations. I want to thank other health and medical professional groups, the department and my adviser, Kylie Wright, for their outstanding work in helping to obtain stakeholder views and to ensure that is faithfully reflected within the legislation.

Importantly, departmental officers will continue to follow prescribed and legislated processes when undertaking Medicare compliance, with procedural fairness and review rights for health professionals retained. The bill does not support automation of the department's compliance activities and outcomes, or the raising and collection of debts.

The government acknowledges the importance of protecting an individual's privacy and the trust placed in the government by Australians to manage their health data appropriately. Protecting the privacy of an individual's health and other data is central to this bill.

As Minister for Health, I will be required to put in place governance arrangements for data-matching for Medicare compliance purposes through a legislative instrument that prescribes how information for data-matching will be handled. The legislative instrument will ensure that the use, storage, access and handling of data protects privacy.

In conclusion, I consider that this bill strikes the right balance by facilitating the important public policy objective of protecting the integrity of our taxpayer-funded health system, while enshrining strong principles to protect the privacy and security of personal health data.

I would again like to extend my thanks to all of the healthcare professional groups that have engaged in the design of this bill, providing constructive input and feedback over the past 18 months. I would also like to thank the opposition for their constructive engagement and involvement. Those groups, as I mentioned earlier, that have contributed include the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. All have played a constructive role and have improved the content, structure and drafting of the bill through its processes.

I want to commend the legislation to the House and I thank the House for the opportunity to present the bill.

Debate adjourned.