MEDICAL CARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 October 1941, Page 5

MEDICAL CARE

PRACTITIONER SERVICE / CONDITIONS DEFINED IN REGULATIONS. SCALE OF SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Payment for “general medical services” by the Social Security Fund is provided for in the Social Security (General Medical Services). Regulations. 1941, Avhieh were gazetted last evening. 'Die regulations are to come into force on November 1. A number of different services rendered by doctors, of which the most important was specialist services, were excluded from this term by the Social Security Amendment Act, recently passed by Parliament. The regulations further * limit the term "general medical services” by excluding the following services given by doctors: (a) Medical services for the purpose of obtaining a medical certificate for production to some other person, ether than certificates required for monetary benefits under the Social Security Act or sickness benefits from a friendly society. (b) The treatment of venereal dissease in a communicable form. (c) The extraction of teeth by a doctor. (d) Services given to a person who has a claim for workers' compensation or damages. (e) Services covered by the X-ray regulations. The ordinary fee which a doctor is entitled to receive from the Social Security Fund under the Act is 7s 6d. but if he attends a person in response to an urgent request on a Sunday or between the hours of 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. on a- weekday, he may receive 12s 6d Power is given also to the Medical Officer of Health to authorise a fee of more than 7s 6d in cases where consultations last for more than 30 minutes. FORMS & PROCEDURE. Forms will be provided enabling .the doctor to claim direct from the fund, or enabling persons to claim a refund' after they have paid the doctor. These forms will be distributed to doctors and will also be obtainable at all chief post offices. The date and place where the services were given must be shown, and any other particulars which justify a higher fee than 7s 6d. A patient, or someone on his behalf, must certify that the services were given and any refusal to sign this certificate will entitle the doctor to recover fees from the patient as if the Act had not been passed. All claims, whether by doctor or patient, not made within two months after the services .were given or the doctor was paid by the patient, as the case may be, may be reduced by 10 per cent. Where, in accordance with the Act, a claim for mileage is disallowed on the ground that the travelling could have . been avoided, the doctor is entitled to recover the amount so .disallowed from the patient. The regulations detail how mileage claims are to be made. OBLIGATIONS OF PATIENTS. If any patient fails to conform with the following rules, he is to be liable to a penalty equal to the amount of ths fees paid or payable out of the fund to any doctor in respect of the particular matter to which the default relates:— (a) Refrain from making unnecessary demands on the services of a doctor. (b) Arrange, wherever practicable, to attend at the doctor’s surgery. (c) Except in cases of emergency, to notify the doctor, when a visit to the home is necessary, not later than 10 a.m. on the day of the visit.’ (d) To sign all forms required to enable the doctor to claim a fee from the fund. (e) To furnish any information’ required to enable payment to be made to the doctor. The medical officer of health may require a doctor to furnish an explanation of any claim made by him, and on' failure to do so, the matter is to be referred to the Minister who, after consultation with a committee 'to be set up under the terms of the Social Security Act. may direct that that claim, or any claims made under the regulations by that doctor, be disallowed, either wholly or in part, or may authorise the recovery of claims already paid to that doctor. A doctor who refuses or fails to sign a receipt required to enable a patient to obtain a refund of fees paid by him to the’ doctor or to supply any information required by a medical officer of health, in respect of any claim, is liable to a fine of £lO.