Confirming concession card entitlement and issuing interim vouchers 101-06070000

Customers may contact to advise that they have experienced difficulties when attempting to access concessional rates provided by service providers, for example:

• at a pharmacy or Medicare Australia office for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription medicines, or
• another service provider using CCeS electronic validation processes

There may be an inconsistency between what the customer has been told and what is on their record.

In cases where a concession provider does not utilise the services of CCeS, it also may be necessary to manually confirm concession entitlement periods.

To accurately determine the customer's concession entitlement, use the Confirm Concession Entitlement (CCE) workflow in Process Direct. This will activate all of the following:

• issue a letter to the customer confirming their concessional entitlement
• refresh the customer record overnight, and
• send updated concessional information to Medicare Australia

The Confirm Concession Entitlement letter may be printed centrally or locally. The customer may opt to attend the service centre to collect the letter or have the letter posted to their mailing address. At the customer's request, this information can be faxed directly to a concession provider.

Refreshing and resending concession data to Medicare Australia ensures information is updated in real time for electronic validation by concession providers. This is an overnight process.

An interim voucher can only be issued to a valid cardholder and cannot be issued between the lodgement of a claim and the determination of that claim, even if the customer appears to be in urgent need of concessional entitlement.

When a customer is granted their payment or concession card, an interim voucher may be issued immediately.

An interim voucher may be issued to a current cardholder in situations where they urgently need to verify their entitlement to a:

• Health Care Card (HCC)
• Low Income Health Care Card (LIC)
• Pensioner Concession Card (PCC)
• Ex-Carer Allowance (child) Health Care Card (EHC), or
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)

An interim voucher may be issued for:

• a newly released prisoner who needs access to:
• health care concessions to see a doctor for medical treatment, or
• travel concessions to return to their home from prison
• an eligible customer who is temporarily residing overseas and returns to Australia. For example, missionaries serving overseas. These customers are entitled to a HCC while in Australia and for 6 weeks from the date of each temporary departure. The voucher periods default to 14 days but may be extended for the periods of time in Australia up to 3 months
• a pension customer who was residing overseas and returns to live in Australia, is eligible for the PCC to be issued when they return. If the customer is in ENV I, a concession card will not be automatically issued. See Return to Australia procedures for service centre and smart centre staff for pension payments
• the children of a cardholder who requires access to the concessional entitlement when they are temporarily in the care of a non-custodial parent. Note: certain information relating to both the custodial and non-custodial parent must be excluded from the interim voucher. Include the name and CRN of the child/ren on the interim voucher. 'For Child Use Only' will be displayed in the address field

If a customer is eligible for a concession card and urgently needs an interim voucher, it can be issued by a Service Officer to the customer. Interim vouchers are not to be mailed to the customer because they require a customer’s signature.

A non-custodial parent is a parent whose children are not considered dependent under shared care provisions. Only the custodial parent can request that an additional concession card (including interim vouchers) is issued for the non-custodial parent to use when caring for the children. Therefore, the non-custodial parent must request the card from the custodial parent.

Interim concession cards (in the form of a voucher) can be issued to a non-custodial parent while temporarily caring for children who are included as dependants on the Health Care Card (HCC), Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) or Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) of the custodial parent or guardian. These interim vouchers may be issued for up to 3 months in the future.

If the interim voucher is to be issued to a person other than the custodial parent, full details including the express permission of the custodial parent must be clearly documented on the custodial customer's record.

The custodial parent is able to specify which eligible children are to appear on the printed interim voucher. The non-custodial parent’s interim voucher is to exclude the following information relating to both the custodial and non-custodial parent:

• customer's name
• customer's residential address
• payment type
• name of partner
• Customer Reference Number (CRN) (partner's)

The name and CRN of the child/ren are to be recorded on the interim voucher. 'For Child Use Only' will be displayed in the address field. The default period for the interim voucher is 14 days from the issue date however the dates of the period can be manually changed if required.

In cases of family and domestic violence or other sensitive family circumstances, a social worker may be required to facilitate the provision of the interim voucher to the non-custodial parent.

As the children are considered to be dependants of the custodial parent while in the non-custodial parent's care, concessions are to be available for the children at any time, regardless of the non-custodial parent's income.

Individuals who have a Regular Care Child will need to apply for a HCC by lodging a claim for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) in the first instance so that an assessment can be made as to whether they meet all other FTB requirements and can be issued a HCC via the FAO system. These customers can have their children listed on their LIC.

The Concession Card Reissue guided procedure in Customer First is used to issue the voucher.

Service Officers must ensure that the customer satisfactorily confirms their identity. See Authenticating a customer. Signature checks should only be conducted if the Service Officer doubts the customer's identity. For example, if they have no identity documents and cannot answer questions about previous addresses and bank accounts.

An interim voucher can be issued for any period of a maximum of 3 months up until the card expiry date. Generally, it is issued to cover the customer for a period of 14 days. By this time, the customer should receive the original or replacement card in the mail.

The interim voucher may be issued for a period more than 14 days in the following circumstances where:

• there is a continuing problem with the system failing to issue the card/s
• a pension customer who was residing overseas and returns to live in Australia, is eligible for the PCC to be issued when they return. If the customer is in ENV I, a concession card will not be automatically issued. See Return to Australia procedures for service centre and smart centre staff for pension payments
• an interim voucher issued to:
• a cardholder (custodial parent) for the use by their dependent children when in the care of a non-custodial parent. Interim vouchers can only be issued to the customer. The custodial parent’s address must not be recorded on an interim voucher issued for use by the non-custodial parent. Under no circumstances can they be issued directly to the non-custodial parent. The custodial parent's address must not be recorded on an interim voucher issued for use by the non-custodial parent. In cases of family and domestic violence or other sensitive family circumstances, a social worker may be required to facilitate the provision of the interim voucher to the non-custodial parent
• a customer whose payment has been cancelled due to employment income, but the customer remains eligible for an extension concession card and their card has been lost, stolen or destroyed
• customers whose records are saved Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) cases

Interim vouchers displaying a different name to that recorded on the system should not be issued to a customer. If a customer requests that an interim voucher be issued because the name stated on their automatically issued concession card is different to the name they use with concession providers, check the customer's record. The system defaults to display the recorded current Legal (LGL) name on a concession card. Make any updates before issuing a replacement card or interim voucher.

Partnered customers can request to have their concession card to be reissued without their partner’s name listed.

Customers may nominate a concession card preference for their address:

• to be displayed (including where more than one address is recorded), or
• not to be displayed

When an eligible customer departs Australia permanently, their concession entitlement is cancelled on the date of departure, regardless of what time of day the customer departs.

For temporary absences, concession cards issued by Centrelink are portable for up to 6 weeks from departure, subject to continuing eligibility. See Portability of concession cards for more details, including resetting portability periods when customers return to Australia after an absence and reclaim requirements.

See Return to Australia procedures for service centre and smart centre call staff for pension payments if:

• a customer contacts because their concession entitlement has been cancelled due to an overseas absence, and
• the datalink has not yet updated the record to show the customer has returned to Australia

Customers can access their digital wallet in the myGov app or Express Plus Centrelink app to present their concession card using their smart device. Accepting the digital card is at the discretion of the concession provider, so it is important that customers have their physical card with them.