Turn Off Medicare Online Printing Guide:
Update 26 March 2020 18:06 EST:
Please see below the updated advice:
From: OTSLIAISON <otsliaison@servicesaustralia.gov.au>
Sent: Thursday, 26 March 2020 18:06
To: OTSLIAISON <otsliaison@servicesaustralia.gov.au>
Subject: Services Australia advice: Current requirements for printing forms during COVID-19 pandemic [SEC=OFFICIAL]
Good afternoon,
Further to the advice provided on 20 March 2020 regarding printing of forms, particularly for the assignment of benefit:
Under these exceptional and temporary circumstances, for the COVID-19 items only, the practitioner’s documentation in the clinical notes of the patient’s agreement to assign their benefit as full payment for the service would be sufficient.
This means that agreement can be obtained through one of three options being in writing, by email, or verbally through the technology with which the attendance is conducted. This agreement can be provided by a patient, or another person, such as the person’s carer or family member. The practitioner should keep their own record that the patient agreed or acknowledged that the service was provided, and that the Medicare benefit could be paid directly to the practitioner.
The Department of Health may investigate potentially fraudulent claims by seeking to verify that the service was provided to a patient. However, the Department is not intending to undertake compliance activity directly focused on whether the assignment of benefit process aligned with the usual requirements.
Previous Services Australia advice stating providers no longer have to print and retain bulk bill forms was incorrect.
We apologise for any confusion this has caused.
Should you have any questions regarding this advice, please contact the OTS Liaison team via email at .
Regards,
Online Technical Support Liaison
Health Systems Branch
Production Systems Delivery Centre
Services Australia
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/software-vendors
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20 March 2020 14:29 EST
Please see below the advice we received today from Services Australia (Medicare):
From: OTSLIAISON
Sent: Friday, 20 March 2020 14:29
To: OTSLIAISON
Subject: Services Australia advice: Current requirements for printing forms suspended due to COVID-19 [SEC=OFFICIAL]
Good afternoon,
Services Australia advises that the mandatory requirement to physically print forms for patients will be suspended until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The following forms will be exempt from current mandatory printing requirements:
- Bulk Bill Assignment Advice (DB4 form)
- Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Printed Statements (D1216S)
- In-patient Medical Claim (IMC) Patient Claim Consent and Declaration
- Lodgement Advice
- Patient Claim Interactive (PCI) Statement
- Online Eligibility Check (OEC) Disclaimer
- Statement of Claim and Benefit Payment
- Pathology Combined Request form – Patient Claiming
- Simplified Billing Assignment Claim form
These forms should be signed, printed, stored or sent electronically where possible. There will be no audits conducted during this period.
Please distribute this advice to your relevant stakeholders.
Should you have any questions regarding this advice, please contact the OTS Liaison team via email at .
Regards,
Online Technical Support Liaison
Health Systems Branch
Production Systems Delivery Centre
Services Australia
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/health-professionals/software-vendors
********************************************************************** IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail **********************************************************************