like conducting a study of the Flat Earth
Society. There's a lot of myth and not a lot of
substance, and woe betide anyone who dares
to travel beyond the horizon.
Benefits Schedule (MBS) itself, which is
a departmental publication, very much a
hybrid work, containing law, fact and plenty
of fiction. As Paul Keating might say, it is
the `fiction that we have to have'. The legal
literature and reported cases refer to the
MBS very simply as `a book'.
confusing by considering them in the context
of some of the many queries I have received
from doctors. I will then provide some
answers and some rules of thumb.
The enabling legislation for the Medicare
scheme is the Health Insurance Act 1973
(the Act), and its associated regulations and
tables. Some components of this complex
legal scheme are directly copied and pasted
into the MBS, such as the items described
in the General Medical Services Table. But
the explanatory notes in the MBS reveal
something entirely different and are probably
Department of Human Services as to how
the scheme should be administered.
it is important to note that some of the
explanatory notes throughout the MBS bare
no relationship at all to anything that can be
found anywhere in the law.
up in court. Australian courts apply and
interpret law, not books. So, while medical
practitioners are advised to read, understand
and apply the MBS book, if they get it wrong
and end up in a court of law, the court will
ultimately apply and interpret the law rather
than the book.
114 (12 April 2006), ADAMS J, sitting on
the court of criminal appeal, remarked that
Dr Sood was in a position where she was
being required to interpret a point of law
and apply it to the facts which, as a medical
practitioner, she had neither the training nor
the skills to do.
in the Act:
in more than one location. By deciphering fact from fiction,
Managing Director
of Synapse Medical
Services.