COMCARE OPERATIONAL ADVICE 13
PAYMENTS TO BE MADE VIA THE SUBSEQUENT PAYMENTS SYSTEM
Branch Heads
State Commissioners
Majors
Subsequent claims are those that do not fall into the Medical/Travel or Incapacity categories for payment. At present section 57 payments for accepted claims are processed via the subsequent payment system.
Any decision to make a payment via the subsequent screen as distinct from the medical/travel screen on Compense results in a manual cheque being issued in Central Office within a fortnight of determination. To‑date some 750 manual cheques have been issued via this system (average of 187 per pay). It was originally estimated that only 80 cheques per fortnight would be required to be produced manually.
Following an analysis of the payments processed via the subsequent payment system, the number of subsequent entries in each state could be significantly reduced if section 57 payments were processed on the medical/travel screen.
Therefore, from now on, all section 57 payments for accepted claims are to be processed on the medical/travel screen instead of the subsequent screen.
Staff should ensure that when processing these payments via the medical/travel screen that the following changes are made:
the automatic default to section 16(1) is overwritten when a medical report is to be paid section, ie '57' should be entered;
the field for description of the medical treatment should be recorded as 'report';
that a valid Provider or Organisation is attached to each record.
Also, to achieve further reductions in the number of subsequent entries, it should be ensured that only payments that cannot be made via the medical/travel screen are made via the subsequent system. For example, some section 37 rehabilitation payments have been processed as subsequents instead of using the medical/travel payment system.
The data that staff are including on Compense on the section of the Act will enable Comcare to reimburse agencies and invoice agencies for specific payments of compensation. Also reporting of costs paid under the Act, rely heavily on correct information being entered into Compense.
This Operational Advice overrides sections 1 & 2 of the advice issued by the Program Delivery Branch on 22 December 1988 (copy of which is attached).
Please ensure that all operational staff are fully briefed on this change to procedures. Early implementation of this advice would be appreciated.
Sue Hamilton
First Assistant Commissioner
20 February 1989
To:All State Commissioners
SECTION 57 PAYMENTS
You were previously advised to enter all Section 57 expenses as Subsequent claims, and to determine those for undetermined Initial Claims by using P as the Determination Status. These expenses would then have been selected for the report on 'Subsequent claims to be paid manually'. However, COMPENSE will not allow this to be done at present so the following procedures are to be used:
1)Continue to register Section 57 expenses as Subsequent claims.
2)Continue to determine Section 57 expenses for accepted Claims as these will be selected for the report on 'Subsequent claims to be paid manually'. Batch and reconcile these as usual (see Section 7.4 of the Clerical Procedures manual).
3)Section 57 expenses for undetermined Initial Claims should be left with Determination Status as U but checked to make sure that ALL other details are entered and correct.
4)For each Payee with a Section 57 expense for an undetermined Initial Claim a Cheque Requisition and a Payment Advice need to be completed (these forms are in the Payments Procedures manual). The forms are then given to the Corporate Services Administration Officer for batching and forwarding to the Benefits Payment Team. The Benefits Payment Team will raise a manual cheque using these details and will advise the State Office when cheques are issued.
NOTE: Please type the details onto these forms and ensure that the Cheque Requisition is on green paper and the Payment Advice is on blue paper. The Delegate requesting the payment must sign the Cheque Requisition in the box marked 'Cheque Initiator'.
5)Each batch needs to be covered by a Batch Header. The Batch No. is the State Code followed by a sequence number starting from 001 (eg the first batch from Qld would be numbered Q/001, the next batch would be Q/002 etc). Each batch should be entered into a Batch Register.
6)The actual accounts are to be kept by the State Office and batched separately from the Subsequent claims for determined Initial Claims. A copy of the Batch Header sent to the Benefits Payment Team should be stored with the batch.
7)When cheques have been issued the Benefits Payment Team will return a copy of the Batch Header, complete with cheque details, to the Corporate Services Administration Officer. This should be attached to the appropriate batch.
COMPENSE will be changed as soon as possible to enable processing of these claims along with the other Subsequent claims. When the system is fixed you will be advised of any action necessary on your part to update the data. Copies of the Cheque Requisition, Payment Advice, and Batch Header are attached.
PETER SKEEN
Assistant Commissioner
Program Delivery Branch
22 December 1988
0349E
Benefits Payments
CHEQUE REQUISITION
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Cheque No: |
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Date: |
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PAYEE: |
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PAYMENT ADVICE
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Date: |
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Claim |
Date |
Provider |
Employee |
Amount |
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No |
Name |
Name |
Paid |
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TOTAL CHEQUE AMOUNT: