Aged Care
Medicare card number and eACCR - implementation
The Department of Human Services (DHS) has extended online access to Aged Care Client Record (ACCR) data to additional aged care providers.
Approximately 80 per cent of ACCR’s are submitted electronically. All approved assessments (paper and electronic) are available on the secure Aged Care Online Claiming (ACOC) website.
Previously, only Residential and Community Care providers had access to the ACOC website. This limited the ability of other approved aged care providers to determine if care recipients are approved for care (prior to agreeing to providing care).
On 10 December 2011, DHS implemented changes to the ACOC website to allow additional aged care providers access to ACOC in order to obtain the electronic Aged Care Client Record (eACCR).
DHS has extended online access to ACCR data to the following additional aged care providers:
- Extended Aged care at Home (EACH) providers
- Extended Aged Care at Home Dementia (EACHD) providers
- Transition Care (TC) providers
- Multi Purpose Services (MPS)
- Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centres (CRCCs).
If you would like to register to use the ACOC website, you will need to complete an ACOC registration form. The form will be available on this website in April 2012.
In addition to extending online access to ACCR data, DHS took this opportunity to strengthen the privacy and security of care recipient information. Additional measures have been put in place to protect care recipients' personal information.
To access care recipient ACCR data when using Aged Care Online Claiming (for care recipients who are not in your care), you are now required to provide:
- the care recipient’s name
- date of birth
- Medicare card number and individual reference number (IRN) and
- a reason for accessing the person’s aged care approval information.
The system will only display a care recipient’s information if all the supplied information can be verified.
If a care recipient is unable to provide a Medicare card number eg. the care recipient has forgotten their card; or the care recipient does not have a Medicare card (has a DVA Gold card), and they also do not have a copy of the ACCR, provisions have been put in place to assist the facility in retrieving the ACCR from DHS. These provisions will be outlined in updated Quick Reference Guides.
There will be no change to the way you access approval information if the care recipient is already in your care.
The changes have been introduced to the existing Care Recipient and eACCR search functions.
Changes have also been made to ACOC to enable residential care providers to access the following Medicare card information for recipients in their care
- the Medicare card number
- individual reference number and
- expiry date.
This will assist aged care providers to facilitate medical consultations for their care recipients in cases where the current Medicare card number details are not available which prevents medical professionals to claim.
The Aged Care Online Claiming Website User Guide for providers and services is currently being updated to reflect these changes and will be available on this website soon..
For more information call the Department of Human Services - Medicare Program Aged Care enquiries line on 1800 195 206*. You can also find more information on the frequently asked questions page on this website and on the Department of Health and Ageing
website.
Changes to Payment Statements
Paper payment statements and claim forms are no longer provided to services that have transmitted a full range of events^ electronically over a three month period.
Previously the paper based payment statements had a greater level of detail about claims than the online payment statements. In April 2011 improvements were made to the online payment statements to show the same information as the paper payment statements.
For services who do not yet transmit a full range of events electronically, but aim to in the future, this change will not take effect until you have transmitted a full range of events for three months. After this time all future payment statements will be accessible electronically only.
For more information call 1800 195 206*
^ A full range of events refers to all events including finalised claim
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Aged Care eNews is a quarterly eNewsletter to keep you up-to-date with:
- industry news
- developments in online claiming
- information about the Aged Care program.
eNews alerts provides you with instant alerts and notifications about the Aged Care Online Claiming website and the Department of Human Services' system performance.
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Aged care payments
The Department of Human Services administers more than $8 billion worth of aged care payments annually to approved providers across a range of residential, community and flexible Aged Care programs.
The Department of Human Services is responsible for the processing and payment of:
- residential aged care subsidies and associated supplements for high-level and low-level residential care
- residential respite care subsidies and associated supplements for short-term high-level and low-level residential care
- community aged care package subsidies to support people with low-level complex health needs and their carers
- flexible aged care subsidies including:
- extended aged care at home subsidies to support people with high-level complex health needs and their carers
- extended aged care at home dementia subsidies to provide dementia specific support to people with high-level complex health needs and their carers
- transition care subsidies for short-term rehabilitation care to recipients after care in hospital.
Aged Care Online Claiming is a fast and secure solution that allows you to easily transmit forms online and claim directly with the Department of Human Services. For more information about online claming, go to Aged Care Online Claiming.
Feedback/enquiries
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Last updated: 15 May, 2012