Assignment of Benefit legislation passed
The legislation passed last week and follows AMA advocacy to fix out-of-date rules under the Health Insurance Act.
The Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Bill 2024 was passed last week. The AMA had been calling for changes to the Health Insurance Act to bring it in line with modern practices, including removing statutory requirements for patients to have to sign paper-based forms when assigning their Medicare benefit.
The legislation will allow the AMA to work with the Department of Health and Aged Care and stakeholders over the next 18 months to design more relevant rules that will do away with the requirements for paper-based forms and provide much greater flexibility in how assignment of benefit can be demonstrated.
