Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) Where, as a result of the making of a false or misleading statement, an amount paid, purportedly by way of payment for treatment provided under this Part for an eligible person, exceeds the amount (if any) that should have been paid, the amount of the excess is recoverable as a debt due to the Commonwealth from the person by or on behalf of whom the statement was made, or from the estate of that person, whether or not the amount was paid to that person and whether or not any person has been convicted of an offence in relation to the making of the statement.
(2) Where:
(a) an amount (in this subsection referred to as the principal sum ) is recoverable as a debt due to the Commonwealth from a person, or from an estate, under subsection (1);
(b) the Commission has served a notice on the person, or on the estate, as the case may be, claiming the amount as a debt due to the Commonwealth; and
(c) either of the following conditions is satisfied:
(i) an arrangement has been entered into between the Commission and the person or the estate, as the case may be, within a period of 3 months following the service of the notice or such longer period as the Commission allows (which period or longer period is in this section referred to as the relevant period ), being an arrangement for the repayment of the principal sum, and default has been made (whether before or after the end of the relevant period) in the payment of an amount as required by the arrangement; or
(ii) at the end of the relevant period, such an arrangement has not been entered into and all or part of the principal sum remains unpaid;
then, from the day after the end of the relevant period, interest, at the rate prescribed from time to time for the purposes of subsection 129AC(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 , becomes payable on so much of the principal sum as from time to time remains unpaid, and the interest so payable is recoverable as a debt due to the Commonwealth from the person, or from the estate, as the case may be.
(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2), in any proceedings instituted by the Commonwealth for the recovery of an amount due under subsection (2), the court may order that the interest payable under that subsection shall be, and shall be deemed to have been, so payable from a day later than the day referred to in that subsection.
(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, where an amount paid to a person, purportedly by way of payment for treatment provided for an eligible person under this Part, exceeds the amount (if any) that should have been paid to that person (which excess is referred to in this subsection as the excess amount ), the Commission may, if the person so agrees, reduce the amount of any payment that subsequently becomes payable to that person under this Act by an amount not exceeding the amount by which the sum of the excess amount and any excess amounts previously paid to that person is greater than the sum of any amounts recovered by the Commission by one or more previous applications of this subsection or under subsection (1).