Health Insurance Amendment (Pathology Requests) Bill 2010
Information about the Inquiry
On 24 February 2010 the Senate referred the Health Insurance Amendment (Pathology Requests) Bill 2010 for inquiry and report.
The Senate, on the recommendation of the Selection of Bills Committee, referred the provisions of the above Bill to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 12 May 2010.
The Health Insurance Amendment (Pathology Requests) Bill 2010 amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 to allow patients to take a pathology request to an approved pathology practitioner or authority of their choice.
The following issues were outlined for the Committee to consider during the inquiry:
• examination of the onus being placed on patients to choose the pathology practitioner
• examine possible problems arising between unknown referring doctors and pathology practitioners - resulting in delays
• examine problems that may arise as a result of the inconsistent measurement series and reference ranges used by different pathologist practitioners
• examine potential impacts on arrangements between GPs and pathology providers relating to emergency and out of hours contacts.
Submissions should be received by 09 April 2010. The reporting date is 12 May 2010.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3515 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5829 or by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia