Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased today to introduce the Dental Benefits Legislation Amendment Bill 2014.

The bill amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to allow for a better process for waiving debts for dentists under the former Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme—dentists who did nothing more than make minor paperwork errors and who have been waiting for way too long for adequate resolution.

The Chronic Disease Dental Scheme was set up by the current Prime Minister, the then health minister, in 2007, and provided access to benefits of up to $4,250 over two calendar years for patients with chronic health conditions. Eighty per cent of people who accessed this scheme were concession card holders. It was our country's biggest ever investment into dental care.

This scheme provided much-needed dental treatment—in fact more than 20 million services to more than one million patients—before the previous Labor government closed it down for political purposes in 2012.

In opposition I offered to compromise on design changes to the scheme, which were never entertained by the then government. Their desire was simply to destroy a scheme helping Australians, solely because its architect was Tony Abbott.

The Chronic Disease Dental Scheme included a technical reporting requirement, a requirement that necessitated dentists providing treatment plans to general practitioners, along with a quote and treatment plan to patients, prior to commencing treatment.

The then government sought to use the dentists' technical oversight as a means of discrediting the scheme, and it was a shameful act.

Dentists who did not meet these reporting requirements have been pursued for repayment of the full amount of the Medicare benefits paid under the scheme although, in most cases, these dentists met all the other requirements of the scheme and provided much-needed services to patients. They were simply used by Labor as political pawns.

I made it very clear previously in this House that recovery of the full benefit was an excessively severe punishment given that the only error these hard-working professionals made was overlooking a paperwork requirement.

The Department of Human Services sought to redress this issue by applying to the Minister for Finance to waive these debts under section 34 of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997.

However, this process has so far been extremely time consuming and resource intensive for the Department of Finance and the Department of Human Services. It has also created anxiety and uncertainty for dentists who have been waiting for long periods of time to find out if their debts have been waived.

This bill will relieve the uncertainty for dentists by allowing faster processing of the waivers. It does so by allowing the chief executive of Medicare to waive the debts of those dentists who did not meet the paperwork requirements without the need to go through the current lengthy process.

Let me be very clear: this amendment will not excuse those dentists—a small number—who did not comply with other legal requirements of the scheme or, in particular, who committed fraud. Only those dentists who provided services in good faith will be eligible to have their debt waived. And we know that these dentists are in the majority.

Dentists who, in good faith, did the right thing by their patients and provided them with much needed services.

I turn now to the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. The program commenced on 1 January 2014 and provides access to benefits for basic dental services to children aged two to 17 years. The total benefit entitlement is capped at $1,000 per child over a two-year calendar period.

The CDBS has a means test, which requires receipt of family tax benefit part A or a relevant Australian government payment.

This bill amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to introduce critical changes for the efficient operation of the child dental benefits.

To ensure that compliance audits of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule are more efficient and effective, this bill introduces amendments which will bring the compliance framework for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule into greater alignment with Medicare's compliance framework.

It does so by including the power to compel a provider to comply with a request to produce documents to substantiate the payment of benefits.

These powers in this bill will enable the chief executive of Medicare or a relevant officer of the Department of Human Services to give a notice to a practitioner, requiring them to produce documents to a practitioner, or another relevant person, to confirm appropriate Medicare claiming is occurring.

Penalties will apply to individuals who fail to comply with a notice.

The bill also amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act 2008 so that the provisions of the Professional Services Review scheme can be applied to any dental services provided under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.

The Professional Services Review is an independent authority which examines suspected cases of inappropriate practice referred to it by the Department of Human Services.

The PSR can currently investigate cases of inappropriate practice under the Medicare program and the PBS.

Together, these critical amendments to the Child Dental Benefits Schedule will make the schedule more efficient, ensure that Commonwealth funding is being used appropriately, and promote a more consistent compliance structure for both Medicare and dental programs.

Finally, the bill makes a number of technical amendments to ensure the efficient and effective operation of both the Dental Benefits Act and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.

This government is committed to improving health outcomes for Australians, as well as ensuring efficient and effective delivery of services.

In conclusion, I put on the record some early concerns about the way in which the Child Dental Benefits Schedule was structured. Some of the initial usage rates, which are being closely monitored by my department at the moment, are to be noted. Also, we are very keen to observe practices across the states and territories in relation to their operation under this scheme, and we will continue to monitor that program very carefully because I do have some concerns about the way in which this scheme was designed in the dying days of a very bad government in the last parliament and I will continue to have a watching brief on what is a significant outlay of taxpayers' money.

On that basis, I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.