Military Compensation Scheme

Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988

Subject

TRANSFERRING COMPENSATION CLAIMS BETWEEN MILITARY COMPENSATION AND REHABILITATION OFFICES AND RECORDING OF FILES ON TRIM

Purpose

1. The purpose of this Military Compensation and Rehabilitation Instruction is to revoke DCI 15 Amendment 1 and issue updated procedures to reflect changed practices following the addition of MCRS File records in TRIM.

Cancellation of Defence Compensation Instruction

2. DCI 15 Amendment 1 dealing with the transfer of claims is to be replaced by this instruction.

Policy

3. From time to time MCRS claims and files will need to be transferred from one MCRS site to another. Claims are to be transferred in a timely fashion with all outstanding work finalised prior to transfer. In particular the originating office is to continue to action the claim until a primary determination has been made.

4. For practical reasons there will be exceptions to this rule including:

•     where the claim has been addressed to and received by the wrong office e.g. a claim lodged in Canberra for a client living in Sydney;
•     where the client has moved to another state and following completion of initial investigative work, referral to a medical referee or specialist is required to finalise the primary liability determination action;
•     where a request has been received and the subject process is handled at another MCRS Office (e.g. Permanent Impairment, Reconsiderations)

5. Once a primary determination has been made the claim may be transferred to the receiving office to manage future and ongoing liability issues e.g. medical expenses, incapacity and rehabilitation issues.

6. Where a primary determination has been made and the client has moved to another state and requested reconsideration or PI, the file is to be transferred to the office which is responsible for that reconsideration or PI for the new state.  Eg if a client who moves from Perth to Townsville and requests a reconsideration or a PI payment the file should be transferred to Brisbane.

7. There is no requirement to transfer the claim where the primary determination has been made and no further action is anticipated.

Procedures to be followed

8. Upon receipt of a request for transfer to another state or a notification of change of address to another state or region the following procedures are to be followed.  If the client has an undetermined claim they are to be advised that the claim will be fully investigated and a determination made prior to the claim being transferred. The client is to be kept informed of the action taken on the claim and advised in writing when the claim is transferred.

9. When transferring the claim the following action is to be taken:

•     Using the 'standard letter' transfer package, both the client and the receiving MCRS site are to be advised of the transfer. Copies of the transfer letters should be attached to the claim file. Any issues the receiving site needs to be aware of should be noted under the relevant headings in the covering minute;
•     The Defcare record should be brought up to date with all decisions recorded and accounts paid;
•     The claim should be transferred on Defcare (see later paragraph for advice on Defcare transfers). The receiving site will have instant access to the Defcare record;
•     The file should be forwarded to Records Administration (RA) for dispatch to the relevant state via the overnight airfreight service; and
•     E-mail should be sent to the relevant team leader advising of the transfer with the covering minute as an attachment.

10. On receipt of the transferred claim the receiving MCRS site is to undertake the following action:

•     Acknowledge receipt of the claim via return e-mail;
•     Using the 'standard letter' acknowledge receipt of the file to the client;
•     Complete the system generation task; and
•     Undertake any action required on the claim.

Transferring a claim on Defcare

11. Transferring a claim on Defcare falls into two categories, primary (overall responsibility for all processes) and secondary (responsibility for a single process e.g. permanent impairment).

•     For transfer of primary responsibilities. All action can be undertaken from the File Details area of the Process View. The transferring office should select the dialogue box from the information line showing the officer or team responsible for the claim, then select the 'transfer' button. The user should then select the relevant 'office team' from within the office the claim is being transferred to. The 'files are located in ..' should be also changed to reflect the new office location for the files. The receiving site may then further reallocate the claim internally using the responsibility pull down tab (the transfer button is only used to move responsibility to another site). When transferring the primary responsibility it is not necessary to also transfer secondary responsibility for old inactive PI claims etc.
•     For transferring of secondary responsibility. To change a secondary responsibility (eg for a PI claim or a reconsideration) the user should select the dialogue box from the process registration heading and select the transfer button then the relevant office and team to transfer to. The 'files are located in ..' in the File Location area in the process view should also be changed.
•     For transferring of PI claims and Reconsiderations to consolidation sites the following two points should be noted:

• The original site only transfers the secondary responsibility for the PI claim or reconsideration to the consolidation site (the original site retains the primary responsibility for the overall claim), and
• Once determined and returned to original site the secondary responsibility  is not to be transferred from the consolidation site. The PI claim or reconsideration will remain and will always appear as the consolidation site workload in reports.

Trim procedures

New Files

12. Upon receipt of an MCRS or TMS claim, records staff will forward the claim to the MCRS section for preliminary action and registration of the claim on Defcare.  Once the claim has been registered, The MCRS assessor will:

•     send an acknowledgment letter and request further information as required;
•     complete a New file request template;
•     mark the DEFCARE status as “Registry”;and
•     forward to DVAs' records administration section (RA).
•     (If necessary the file papers can be retained by the assessor whilst the file is being created.  The printed template must be sent to RA though)

13. RA will register the new client/claim in TRIM, print file cover labels including the barcode and create the hard file. The RA will mark the file in TRIM to the requestors' section and forward it to the requestor.

14. MCRS staff will retain the file until all actions are completed. Upon finalisation of all action the file should be recorded as  “Put away – DVA” on file status in DEFCARE and the file returned to RA. RA will mark the file to file room in TRIM.

Timeframes:

15. The request for a file should be sent to RA on the date of receipt of the claim, following completion of  initial action as specified above.

16. RA staff will create the new file and return to MCRS within two complete working days after date of receipt of the request.

17. This effectively means that within three days after the date of receipt of a new claim, it has been:

•     Registered in DEFCARE and had initial action taken;
•     Registered in TRIM and marked to the action officers section;
•     Placed onto a hard file;
•     Returned to the assessor for further claims action.

Transfer of Files

18. All files that are being moved between MCRS offices will have to be sent via RA for despatch in the first available overnight bag. The RA staff will record the change of location of the file on TRIM.

19. TRIM will be utilised to record the MCRS Office in which the file is located.  Any movement within the office should be recorded on Defcare in the Process view / File Location / The claim files are held by...

Archived Files

20. Once archived, MCRS files become the property of Australian Archives, who have advised that for efficiency reasons, once deposited files are not withdrawn from one Australian Archives repository and placed into another. Should a MCRS site require information from a file held by Australian Archives in another region the following action is to be taken:

•     Obtain the required record by completing the Request For Archived File proforma attached as Annex B; and
•     Once finished with the record return to the original Australian Archive repository.

21. Any enquiries concerning this MCRI should be directed to Mr Bill McCaskill on

(02) 6289 6054.

(Signed)

Mark Travers

Director

Policy and Procedures

13  September 2001

Attachments:

A — Request for Archived File

Attachment A to MCRI 9

SAFETY, REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION ACT 1988

REQUEST FOR ARCHIVED FILE

To:

File Details:

File Required by:

Reason for Request: