C22/2002 Repatriation Health Card - For All Conditions (Gold Card)

Purpose

The purpose of this Departmental Instruction is to provide legislation, policy and procedural systems information about the 2002/2003 Budget Initiative, “Extension of Gold Card eligibility to Post WWII Australian veterans with QS”, commonly known as the “extend Gold Card” initiative.

Commencement

The changes commence on 1 July 2002.

Contacts

First point of contact for inquiries relating to:

• systems - Stephen Harkin (07-3223-8398); or
• policy - Fiona Thompson (07-3223-8766).

JOSEPHINE SCHUMANN

Branch Head

HEALTH eBUSINESS

ROGER WINZENBERG

Branch Head

INCOME SUPPORT

Extension of eligibility

From 1 July 2002, access to the Repatriation Health Card – for all conditions (Gold Card) will be extended to veterans of Australia's Defence Force who:

• are 70 year of age, or over, as at 1 July 2002; and

• have qualifying service.

Legislative Ref: new subsection 85(4B) VEA

Legislation

The Veterans' Entitlements Amendment (Gold Card Extension) Act 2002 No. 12, 2002 received Royal Assent on 4 April 2002.  Schedule 1 of this Act inserts new subsection 85(4B) which extends access to the Gold Card to the new group.

Link to Act: http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/bills/0/2002/0/2 — 0020314ve.htm

Rationale

This extension will make the Gold Card available to older veterans of conflicts including (but not limited to) the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation and the Vietnam War.  Approximately 2,000 veterans will receive a Gold Card ready for use from 1 July 2002.

Importantly, this initiative also takes the longer view, providing for access to the Gold Card in years to come for veterans of later conflicts such as the Gulf War, East Timor and Australia's current deployment in the coalition against terror.

Card benefits - treatment

More information: For detailed information on the benefits available with the Gold Card, refer to HSV 60, Repatriation Health Card - for all conditions (Gold Card) on DVA Facts: http://internet-mirror/factsheets/default.htm

Card benefits - PA

The Gold Card entitles the holder to receive the Pharmaceutical Allowance (PA).  Legislative ref: para 118A(1)(c)

Some Gold Card holders may already receive PA as part of their Service Pension or Disability Pension entitlement, or in some cases if they already hold a Repatriation Health Card – for Specific Conditions (White Card), or receive PA as part of a Centrelink entitlement.  Note that in cases where PA is already received, it will not be paid twice.

Legislative ref: ss 118B(1A), 118B(2).

Claim form

A new claim form, Application for Gold Card, for Veterans of Australia's Defence Force, D3057 has been made available to State Offices in brochure format.  This has replaced the previous Application for Gold Card form and brochure which was only applicable to WW2 veterans.  The new form is available on DVA Forms.

Link: http://internet-mirror/clientforms/default.htm

Fact Sheet

The existing Fact Sheet, Repatriation Health Card – For All Conditions (Gold), HSV 60, has been updated and is available on DVA Facts.

Link: http://internet-mirror/factsheets/default.htm

Standard Letters

A new suite of letters, dealing with acknowledgments, grants and rejections, is available in IS Standard Letters through MS Word/File/IS Standard Letters.  The new folder created to hold these letters, is entitled 'Gold Card – Post WW2'.

CLIK

Relevant parts of CLIK have been updated to reflect the changes.

System –  TQO

A new eligibility type of TQO has been created for this extension of eligibility.  A large number of DVA systems (e.g. PIPS/PC, CCPS, DPS) read treatment and card eligibility.  These have been updated to recognise the new eligibility type of TQO.

Daily advices

Daily advices have been updated to recognise the new TQO eligibility type, ensuring existing treatment paragraphs are triggered if and when required.

VIEW enhancement

VIEW has been enhanced to allow all qualifying service decisions (successful and unsuccessful) to be recorded in the Service Details folder.  This folder resides under the Personal Details Tab in VIEW.

When to record

Each time a qualifying service decision is made, that decision should be recorded in VIEW.  For example, when a claim for Gold Card or Service Pension is made.  There are only certain types of CMS classifications that will allow QS to be recorded.  For the extension of Gold Card eligibility, through CM.CI (Classify Income Support), the classification to use is: GOLD CARD POST WWII (ITEM 16).

Note: there is no change to the way CMS cases are registered when recording QS – these cases will continue to be registered on the mainframe.

How to record

The table below outlines the steps involved in recording a QS decision in VIEW.

Step

Action

1

Register a CMS case

2

Open Personal Details Tab in VIEW

3

Open the 'Service Details' folder and switch to 'Update' mode

4

• Record details
• Decision
• Conflict
• Decision Date
• Decision Body
• Comments (if applicable – the comments box is a free text field and can be used to record information relating to that particular record).

Procedural Material

Detailed procedures and “Cheat Sheets” have been issued to State Contact Officers to assist staff to use the new facilities.  These are available in TRIM 0232442E and 0232444E.

EATERS – EN.GC

Recording of Gold Card eligibilities will be moved from the mainframe to VIEW.  This means that the EATERS transaction, EN.GC, will be decommissioned from 15 June 2002.  After that date, any additions or changes to eligibility types should be done through VIEW update.

CMS

CMS has been updated to cater for TQO eligibility (and qualifying service recording in VIEW).  It has been semi-automated.  In most instances, a case will only have to be registered in CMS.  The case attributes and stages will be automatically updated as the case is progressed through VIEW.

Recording TQO in VIEW

TQO (Gold Card – Post World War 2) eligibility is now recorded in VIEW.  The following table shows you how to record eligibility through VIEW.

Note: the system will automatically select the eligibility type based on the conflict that is recorded in the Service Details folder under Qualifying Service Details.  For example, if Australian – Korea/Malaya conflict is recorded, an eligibility of '(TQO) Full Treatment – Post WW2 Qualifying Service' will be automatically recorded.

Step

Action

1

Register a CMS Case:

• GOLD CARD POST WWII (ITEM 16)

2

Open Eligibility Folder Tab in VIEW

3

Open the 'Treatment Eligibility' folder and switch to 'Update' mode

4

Record details:

• Eligibility level (ON/OFF)
• Effective Date
• Decision Body
• Decision Date

5

Save changes

6

Send Standard Letter

PA eligibility

The majority of Gold Card holders will already receive Pharmaceutical Allowance (PA) through another entitlement.  However, Gold Card holders who do not already receive PA, and who are eligible for Gold Card under the new extension of eligibility, will be eligible to receive PA.

PA processing

When recording TQO, the system will automatically check for payment of PA.

IF PA is...

THEN...

Not in payment with DVA

1. 'DP Grant' will be registered (system will auto action); and
2. Grant PA through PIPS using that classification (officer to action).

In payment with DVA

No CMS case will be registered.