Now lawHealth & Care Introduced in the House of Representatives, 04 Sep 2025

Joint register fee now has clear rules on who pays

Companies that sell fake hips and knees pay a small fee. It runs a national record that tracks how well new joints work. This law fixes a gap in who has to pay, and makes past payments safe in law.

Official name: Private Health Insurance (National Joint Replacement Register Levy) Amendment Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Companies that supply fake joints: The company in charge of a listed joint right now pays the fee, as the rules set out.
• People who have hip or knee replacements: The record that checks how well new joints work keeps its money.
• Taxpayers: The government avoids paying about $3.3 million it would have had to cover if the fee could not be collected.

A joint register's fee gap

When someone gets a new hip or knee, details of the surgery go to a national record. It is called the National Joint Replacement Registry. The Australian Orthopaedic Association runs it. That is the group for bone and joint surgeons.

The record collects facts from hospitals across Australia. It is used to make care better for people having joint surgery. For example, it can show if one type of fake joint fails more often than others.

The government gives money to run the record. It gets that money back through a fee. The law says companies that supply fake joints must pay it.

Gap in the old law

Private health insurance funds pay for joints that are on an official list. Its full name is the Prescribed List of Medical Devices and Human Tissue Products. The company in charge of a joint on the list is meant to pay the fee.

The old law, the Private Health Insurance Act 2007, called that company the sponsor. It only counted the company that first put the joint on the list. Over time, a different company can take charge of a listing. The old law did not cover that change.

What the law changes

The law removes the word sponsor and what it meant. Now it says the fee is paid by the person named in the fee rules. These are detailed rules the Health Minister can update without a new vote in Parliament.

Say Company A first listed a knee joint, then sold it to Company B. Under the new way, the rules can make Company B pay. That is because it is now in charge of the joint.

The law also updates the name of the device rules it points to. The new way applies to fees charged on or after the day the law started.

Past payments made safe

Some companies paid the fee in the past even though they were not the sponsor under the old words. So those payments might not have been safe in law.

The law says those payments count. It treats the company that paid as if it had been the sponsor on the day the fee was charged. This covers fees charged before and after 1 July 2023. That is when the device list changed its name.

Start date

The law started 14 days after it was signed. That gap gave time to update the fee rules.

Health Minister Mark Butler brought the bill into the House of Representatives on 4 September 2025. That is the house of Parliament where the government is formed. The House passed it on 8 October 2025. The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 30 October 2025.

The Governor-General, the King's representative, signed it into law on 4 November 2025. Its official number is Act No. 55 of 2025.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum

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