Revised PII standard for all medical practitioners published today

01 Dec 2015

The Medical Board of Australia has today published the revised registration standard for Professional indemnity insurance arrangements for Australia’s 100,000 registered medical practitioners.

The revised standard takes effect on 1 January 2016 and is being published now to support a smooth transition.

The revised standard will replace the current standard. Registered medical practitioners must ensure they comply with the revised PII registration standard from 1 January 2016.

The revised Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard has not changed significantly. It has been reformatted and reworded to help registrants and applicants understand and comply with it.

There are two substantive changes:

1. Medical practitioners with professional indemnity insurance must have appropriate retroactive cover for otherwise uncovered matters arising from prior practice undertaken in Australia.
   
   From 1 January 2016, all registered medical practitioners must comply with the PII registration standard, except for the requirement for ‘appropriate retroactive cover for otherwise uncovered matters arising from prior practice undertaken in Australia’. This requirement comes into effect on 1 October 2016. This requirement has been delayed to give enough time for medical practitioners to make arrangements to meet the standard.
   
   Practically, registered medical practitioners who comply with the current registration standard will meet the revised registration standard until 30 September 2016. Registered medical practitioners who do not currently have retroactive cover as part of their policy will need to ensure that their insurer amends the policy to include retroactive cover from 1 October 2016 (or earlier).
   
   Medical practitioners can seek advice from their insurer to confirm whether their current insurance includes retroactive cover.
   
   
2. The Medical Board will no longer approve insurers. Rather, insurers have to be registered with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and meet the minimum product standards that apply to all medical indemnity insurers as defined in the Medical Indemnity (Prudential Supervision and Product Standards) Act 2003 (Cth).

Revised registration standard

Background

The Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council approved the revised standards on 27 August 2015. The standards were revised after a scheduled review, which included public consultation. National Boards have published consultation reports summarising the consultation processes, the logic for any changes and proposed next steps, including planned further work. The submissions to the public consultation are published on the past consultations page.

The new registration standards for CPD and recency of practice will commence 1 October 2016, to align with the registration renewal period for most medical practitioners. The four registration standards for limited registration will commence in the first quarter of 2016 (date to be confirmed). More information will be available on the Board’s website in early 2016.

Additional resources

The following additional resources about the revised standards are available on the AHPRA website.

• letters of approval
• consultation reports:
  • Continuing professional development registration standard 
  • Recency of practice registration standard 
  • Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard
• common FAQs and timetable for commencement