The Health Professional Advisory Unit (HPAU) 008-03160010

The HPAU is a team of health professionals (including medical practitioners) employed to provide and/or facilitate medical advice and opinion where this information is not available from any other source.

The HPAU:

• strengthens decision making by providing expert advice to key stakeholders, including Assessors, Review Officers, Legal Officers, Random Sample Officers, Specialists and Disability Branch staff involved in Disability Support Pension (DSP) claims, reviews, appeal assessments and determinations
• provides advice to International Services staff including for foreign pension assessment, portability extension requests due to a medical condition and entitlement to indefinite portability of DSP under the 'no future work capacity' portability provisions
• provides advice relating to ministerial complaints, media related cases and high profile matters
• provides medical advice on Carer claims, Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment (AVTOP), People Support Branch cases and other matters

The HPAU may be contacted by telephone, web form or email. For contact details, see Health Professional Advisory Unit (HPAU).

Services provided by HPAU include:

• clarification of information from treating doctors and other medical professionals
• clarification of ambiguous, unclear or conflicting medical information
• expert opinion of the diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and functional impact of medical conditions
• interpretation of the Impairment Tables
• expert advice informing relevant policy
• educational presentations and training material
• internal and external stakeholder engagement

The HPAU will look at all available medical information to take a comprehensive view of the referral. The HPAU are able to offer an opinion on all aspects of the customer's medical condition including:

• an analysis of what treatment options are available based on the co-morbidities
• the prognosis for the customer
• expected outcomes of both the disease and prescribed treatment in relation to the customer's functional capacity including work

A health professional in the HPAU will utilise their broad based medical background and experience to provide feedback to a referring officer.

The HPAU does not:

• provide information or advice to referring officers about income support or program eligibility, for example, DSP entitlements or Disability Employment Services eligibility
• perform medical examinations
• replace the utilisation of existing helpdesks within Services Australia, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, or other external organisations
• replace the existing requirement for customers to provide medical evidence when claiming DSP
• replace existing processes, such as:
• existing Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) procedures and processes, including those for accessing treating health professionals
• existing JCA and contributing assessor expertise
• the utilisation of existing Senior Service Officer or JCA staff
• existing review and appeal processes (for example, Authorised Review Officers (ARO) contacting JCAs for a second JCA report where it is clear new evidence suggests a new JCA is warranted)

Referrals can be made by:

• Assessment Services Branch (ASB). Referrals by Assessors will be reviewed by the relevant Assistant Director and Director. Assessors are not to refer directly to HPAU until clearance has been obtained from an Assistant Director/Director if a referral is necessary. ASB will assess the need for an early HPAU referral where, for example:
• there are serious malignancies and possible manifest eligibility or other conditions that severely limit life expectancy, for example motor neurone disease
• nursing home level care is suspected, for example severe multiple sclerosis, dementing conditions, severe cerebrovascular disease and other less common neurological conditions
• media related cases or high profile customer Ministerial complaints
• Appeals Branch, for example a Review Officer
• the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)
• Legal Services Division
• a decision maker assessing entitlement to Disability Support Pension (DSP):
• Emergency Services Team for AVTOP
• Disability Branch staff
• People Support Branch
• Participation Solutions Team (PST) staff
• Random Sample Officers reviewing DSP payments
• International Services

The Quality Team will assess whether HPAU referrals are required for claims referred to Assessment Services where:

• there are serious malignancies and possible manifest eligibility or other conditions that severely limit life expectancy, for example motor neurone disease
• nursing home level care is suspected, for example severe multiple sclerosis, dementing conditions, severe cerebrovascular disease and other less common neurological conditions
• media related cases or high profile customer Ministerial complaints

The HPAU Health Professional will:

• examine the information, generally in consultation with the referring officer
• determine if additional information is still required and can be obtained by the referrer
• assess if there is a necessity to consult an external health professional to obtain relevant information or clarify the questions or concerns raised by the referrer
• upload the HPAU opinion report to the customer record