Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) (Repeal) Bill 2024 relates to the fees imposed on the pathology sector for certain categories of pathology applications. This bill provides reforms for the current charging arrangements imposed on the sector for categories of accreditation applications.

Under the Health Insurance Act 1973, pathology services must be rendered by or on behalf of an approved pathology practitioner (approved practitioner) in an accredited pathology laboratory (accredited laboratory) operated by an approved pathology authority (approved authority) to be eligible to receive Medicare benefits.

Practitioners or pathologists are required to sign an undertaking to the minister that they will comply with the requirements of the legislation and certain administrative arrangements. They must pay an acceptance fee to become an approved practitioner. Similarly, the proprietor of a laboratory must sign an undertaking and pay an acceptance fee to become an approved authority. Laboratory premises may be approved by the minister as an accredited laboratory following the submission of an application and relevant supporting documentation. This includes an accreditation assessment and payment of the accreditation fee once the premises are provided with an in-principle approval.

The accreditation requirements impose obligations on approved practitioners, accredited laboratories and approved authorities to undertake to meet, or demonstrate compliance with, quality assurance standards for pathology services provided under Medicare.

The Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) Act 1991 (pathology fees act) specifies the fees which must be paid for the acceptance, and approval of, applications for the approved practitioner, approved authority and accredited laboratory. This allows approved providers to be identified in the Services Australia billing system of Medicare eligible services. These fees were arbitrarily set to be between $500 and $2,500 in 1991.

The 2022 health portfolio charging review identified that the fees set against each of these application categories have not been reviewed or changed since the pathology fees act came into force. Further, when investigated, the fees were found to exceed the administrative cost of processing these application categories. As such, this arrangement does not align with the Australian Government Charging Framework 2015.

Removing the fees applied to the three categories of applications through the repeal of the pathology fees act will resolve this misalignment with government charging policy. It will provide fee relief in addition to reducing the administrative burden for the pathology sector.

The consequential amendments included in this bill remove all references to the payment of fees for these application types from 1 July 2025. However, to preserve the high level of confidence in the accuracy of pathology testing in Australia provided under Medicare, the administrative requirements, including accreditation obligations, will remain unchanged.

Debate adjourned.