Preparing, quality and peer to peer checking of Medicare external mail 111-23101138

Where a letter has any type of complaint, compliment, or suggestion, staff must record it in the Customer Feedback Tool.

The Resources page contains a link to the Customer Feedback Tool.

Requirements for letters

If a staff member needs to complete a manual letter, they must use the correct nationally endorsed Standard Letter Template. See Using Standard Letter Templates (SLT) for more details.

The Process page contains more details about how:

• staff submit a letter for peer to peer checking, and
• nominated Quality Checkers perform a peer to peer check

Update CDMS - CDMS users only

Staff preparing correspondence must add:

• a comment in CDMS with a brief description of the reason for the letter
• the comments in the Comments tab of the Personal section for the customer

Addresses

Staff must:

• use window envelopes when sending any outgoing correspondence, and
• check the address details on the letter match with the relevant database

Some databases are set to produce all capital addresses (including names). This is an accepted style from Australia Post.

The Resources page contains links to all the mandatory standards and the writing guide.

Secure print/follow me print

Staff must use secure print/follow me print when printing letters and supporting documentation. This is in line with Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) APP6 and APP11.

Staff must follow the appropriate quality checking procedure for all letters:

• Quality checking procedures via PaNDA apply to:
• Lifetime Health Cover (LHC), Statement of Benefit (SOB), Debt letter - Overpayment over $100 or Estimate letters uploaded to PaNDA
• Out of Home Care (OOHC) letters sent for delegation via PaNDA
• Peer to peer checking procedures apply to other manual letters (where free text is not required)
• Team Leader/delegate must check all letters that have free text

Note: do not email letters to the Quality, Performance & Technical Support Team for quality checking.

The Process page contains more details about:

• how to upload letters in PaNDA for quality checking
• the process for Health Service Delivery Division (HSDD) Quality Checkers, and
• how face to face staff submit and quality check LHC and SOB letters issued at a service centre

The Resources page contains intranet links and contact details.

A proficiency-based approach applies to letters that are peer to peer checked. Service Officers who achieve 95% accuracy for 20 consecutive letters checked will be deemed proficient. This is equal to 1 error in 20 consecutive letters.

Proficient Service Officers are not subject to peer to peer checking requirements and will only submit letters that contain free text for checking.

A Service Officer's proficiency status is available in the Health Letter Checking Dashboard. Service Officers and Team Leaders must monitor proficiency results in the Health Letter Checking Dashboard to ensure peer to peer checked letters are not submitted for checking once proficiency is achieved.

The Resources page contains a link to the Health Letter Checking Dashboard.