Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll be exceedingly brief, and indeed the House may well facilitate this through before the adjournment. I speak on the Health Insurance Amendment (Compliance Administration) Bill 2020 and say the Labor Party will support it. It would be very difficult to find anything to oppose in it because it is very straightforward. It replaces the word 'statement' with 'information'. That's a fair enough change. These days, claims for Medicare benefits have moved from predominantly paper based reports to predominantly electronic information and so, therefore, the word 'information' is more relevant. So I will not be opposing the bill and the Labor Party will facilitate the bill. I will say that I don't regard this as first-order health reform. I'm not sure, when we're recasting Medicare and thinking about Medicare for the next decade, in the post-COVID environment, that replacing the word 'statement' with 'information' would be the first thing I'd think of doing, but I'm not going to object.

I will say, very briefly, on the matter of compliance that I have expressed concern about the government's so-called nudge letters to GPs. Compliance is important; of course GPs need to comply. But while only a tiny fraction of providers bill inappropriately, these letters have been sent to hundreds or even thousands of GPs. As I've said publicly, I do regard them as a blunt instrument that creates needless anxiety in GPs who have done so much for Australians this year, and it undermines clinical decision-making. I agree with the president of the College of General Practitioners who described these letters as an 'intimidating and heavy-handed tactic designed to pick on a small group to affect the whole group'. That's what the late president of the College of GPs said. I do take this opportunity to express my concern. Apart from that, I'm happy to facilitate the passage of the bill through the House, and I think we'll get it done before 7.30.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his brevity.

Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 to make minor changes to the Australian government administrative processes related to Medicare. These changes do not affect the existing arrangements for patients or health professionals. The bill removes the annual sunset period for the regulations that prescribe the table of medical diagnostic imaging and pathology services covered by the Medicare Benefits Schedule. This removes a requirement for the Medicare regulations to be remade each year so patients can continue to be eligible to receive benefits through Medicare. This change will reduce unnecessary administrative work and mitigate the risk that an error during the remake process could affect patient entitlements to benefits under Medicare. The bill also removes a number of provisions in the Health Insurance Act 1973 that are no longer required, as they do not reflect current administrative practices. This includes removing references to the establishment and operation of the inactive Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee, removing calculations relating to Medicare benefits that are no longer used and removing references to historic requirements for optometrists to reflect modern administrative requirements. I thank members for their contributions to the debate on this bill.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.