Obligation of the PUR to Appear

The notice of hearing given to the PUR may require the PUR to appear at the hearing and give evidence. If, having been required to do so, the PUR fails to appear at the hearing, or appears but refuses or fails to give evidence or to answer a question; the Committee can notify the Director of the PUR's failure.

Having notified the Director, the Committee can either proceed with the hearing (in which case the PUR will have been disqualified from the Medicare program) or it may propose to hold another hearing to take evidence from the PUR (effectively giving the PUR another opportunity to comply with the notice). If the PUR subsequently appears and answers every question put to them by the Committee, then the Committee must inform the Director that the PUR has complied with the notice. In that event the power of the Committee to proceed with the hearing without the PUR ceases to apply.

The PUR may be excused from failing to appear at a hearing on properly established medical grounds.

The PUR has the right to refuse to answer questions on the ground that the answer to the question might tend to incriminate him or her and the Committee believes this to be the case.

If the Committee informs the Director that the PUR has failed to appear at a hearing, or has failed to give evidence or answer questions, the Director must disqualify the PUR from the Medicare program and inform Medicare Australia of this action. As soon as possible after being informed of the PUR's compliance with the notice, the Director must revoke that disqualification.