Health Insurance (Medicare Benefits Payable in Respect of Screening Services rendered at Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services) Direction (No. 2) 2024 (Cth)

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND AGED CARE

HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1973

Health Insurance (Medicare Benefits Payable in Respect of Screening Services rendered at Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services) Direction (No. 2) 2024

I, Nigel Murray, Assistant Secretary, MBS Policy and Specialist Programs Branch, Medicare Benefits and Digital Health Division, Health Resourcing Group, delegate for the Minister for Health and Aged Care, acting under subsection 19(5) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) hereby:

(1) REVOKE the Direction made in respect of pathology services that arise from health screening programs provided by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services titled the Health Insurance (Medicare Benefits Payable in Respect of Screening Services rendered at Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services) Direction 2024, dated 24 January 2024; and

(2) DIRECT that Medicare benefits shall be payable in respect of a pathology service to which an item of the pathology services table prescribed under section 4A of the Act relates in the following circumstances:

(a) The pathology service is provided or requested by a person employed or engaged by an organisation listed in Schedule A of this Direction; and

(b) The service is requested or provided as part of a health screening program for the detection and management of sexually transmissible infections, diabetes, renal or cardiovascular disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; and

DECLARE that this Direction commences on 29 June 2024 and ceases to have effect at the end of 30 June 2032 unless earlier revoked.

Date this 17 day of June 2024.

Nigel Murray Assistant Secretary MBS Policy and Specialist Programs Branch Medicare Benefits and Digital Health Division Health Resourcing Group Department of Health and Aged Care