Once the rehabilitation service provider has been chosen it is essential that the Rehabilitation Coordinator make telephone contact to establish open communication and dialogue with the service provider.
This first and less formal communication between the Rehabilitation Coordinator and the service provider will:
Using the appropriate documentation, the Referral to Provider (SF4), including the 'Background Information' page, a formal written referral is developed and sent to preferred provider. This letter can be found in the Standard Letters / forms in Defcare.
The Rehabilitation Provider is required to acknowledge receipt and acceptance of the referral within 24 hours. This will ensure that there is confirmation the referral has been received and accepted by the provider. It will also allow the Rehabilitation Coordinator to forward the referral to another provider if necessary. This is essential for urgent cases.
The Rehabilitation Coordinator should highlight any issues to the rehabilitation service provider which have been identified through the needs assessment [3] process. This can be provided in the form of a copy of the completed needs assessment summary or relevant parts of the summary. The information already compiled by DVA staff during the needs assessment will provide valuable leads as to the rehabilitation issues to be further explored in a comprehensive rehabilitation assessment.
The more detailed and thorough the referral documentation, the smoother the referral process is likely to be. It can be very difficult for the rehabilitation service provider to make initial contact with someone that they know very little about, given that the client may be in a very stressed or vulnerable state.
As a minimum, the referral documentation to the rehabilitation service provider must contain:
Note: Authorisation for the Rehabilitation Coordinator to release personal information to the rehabilitation service provider is given by the client if they have signed the Authorisation section of their claim form, however this authorisation does not extend to the rehabilitation service provider obtaining, disclosing or discussing personal information from the client's treating health professionals or specialists. For this to be allowed the Rehabilitation Coordinator or the rehabilitation service provider must obtain the client's authority by having them complete, sign and return the Medical Disclosure Authority Form available on the Forms Portal [4]. D9290 provides the authorisation for a single medical practitioner and D9291 provides the authorisation for multiple medical practitioners.
The MRCA/DRCA claim forms and the VVRS application form each have authorisation sections as follows:
The Rehabilitation Coordinator is to ensure that the client is kept informed of the decision to refer them to a rehabilitation service provider for a rehabilitation assessment, and advise the client of the following:
It is good practice to advise the treating medical provider/specialist that their patient has been referred for a rehabilitation assessment and that they may be contacted to provide medical input for the assessment and possible rehabilitation program development for their patient. The Medical Details (external) (SL6b) should be used for this purpose.
The decision to refer a client to a rehabilitation service provider, for a rehabilitation assessment is a formal determination and as such is a reviewable decision under section 37 of DRCA [6], section 51 of MRCA [7] and section 1.3.2 of the VVRS Instrument [8]. Refer to section 13.4 [9] of this Library for further information about how a client may request a review of a rehabilitation decision.
Links
[1] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21043%23comment-form
[2] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21027%23comment-form
[3] https://clik.dva.gov.au/military-compensation-mrca-manuals-and-resources-library/policy-manual/ch-2-claims/23-needs-assessments
[4] https://www.dva.gov.au/get-support/find-forms
[5] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=comment/reply/21050%23comment-form
[6] https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1988A00156
[7] https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A01285
[8] https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/F2015L01263
[9] https://clik.dva.gov.au/rehabilitation-policy-library/13-rights-and-obligations/134-reconsideration-and-review-mechanisms-rehabilitation