Overseas immunisations and processing history forms in the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) 011-10020000

Service Officers must promote the recording or updating of immunisation information through the AIR site or Practice Management Software (PMS) where available.

Recognised vaccination providers can notify the AIR of immunisations given overseas or by other vaccination providers by recording an immunisation history. Providers can do this by using:

• the AIR site
• their PMS where available, or
• by completing an Australian Immunisation Register immunisation history form (IM013)

Note: providers do not receive payments for recording an immunisation history given by another vaccination provider.

The vaccination schedules of other countries do not always correspond to Australian schedules. This means that an Australian provider may not be able to identify the vaccine brand name given to a person overseas. This may result in conflicting history between the vaccinations given overseas and in Australia.

The Resources page contains a link to Immunisation (AIRM05) – eLearning. This explains how vaccination providers record overseas immunisation information on the AIR site.

Where a vaccine has been given overseas and the brand name is not known or recognised in Australia, staff must record the vaccination using the generic antigen codes. Where possible, staff should use the generic combination vaccine code. For example, generic MMR rather than generic measles, generic mumps, and generic rubella.

The Immunisation Register immunisation history form (IM013) can be located on the Service Australia website and contains details of the individual's:

• Medicare card and reference number
• Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) number
• name, address, gender and date of birth
• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status
• historical vaccination information, as provided to their provider
• dates of immunisation
• planned catch up schedule option
• details of the provider reporting the information

To process an IM013 form, Service Officers must create a claim header in mainframe. Previously, immunisations were reported to the AIR via a manual paper-based claiming method, known as manual encounters. These manual encounters consisted of bundles of vouchers, and each bundled had a claim header. The provider recorded the encounters by adding details on vouchers and then mail/send the claim to the AIR by bundling the voucher/s into a claim, behind the header.

The claim header consisted of three sections:

• Provider details
• Claim details
• Provider declaration

As the mainframe has not been updated since the manual encounter vouchers ended, staff must key claim header information when processing encounter forms.

Staff are to create a header before processing an immunisation history form. The details to create the header can be found on the IM013 form. When providers submit encounters electronically, the system automatically generates a claim header.

The immunising provider number field on the claim header pre-populates with one of the following generic provider numbers:

• A56801A - for immunisations given in Australia
• A92009H - for immunisations given overseas

Note: providers do not receive an information payment for submitting an IM013 form for processing on the AIR.

If Services Australia (the agency) receives a history form that only notifies the AIR of a catch-up schedule, there is no need to key a header. See Record or amend catch up schedules in the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) for more information.

Vaccination providers can notify the AIR of a catch-up schedule by:

• recording it on the AIR site
• transmitting it using their Practice Management Software (PMS), where available
• submitting an Australian Immunisation Register immunisation history form (IM013)
• submitting an Australian Immunisation Register immunisation encounter (IM018):
• both forms allow vaccination providers to tick a box indicating the person is on a catch up schedule for overdue vaccines

Only one catch up schedule can ever be recorded for a child or individual.

By recording a catch-up schedule on the AIR, an individual's Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Family Tax Benefit (FTB) statuses may:

• be considered up-to-date, and
• meet immunisation requirements for some family assistance payments for the catch-up period

However, their immunisation status will remain not up to date until all required vaccinations are recorded on the AIR. Staff can view the:

• CCS and FTB status in the AIR Service Officer Portal under Status Summary, and
• YIIS - Status and Due Overdue Details screen in AIR mainframe

Take care when entering the date for catch up schedules. If the date is incorrect, it can trigger reminder letters and impact family assistance payments.

If the provider has not supplied the signature date, use the date the agency received the form. A catch-up schedule cannot be backdated.

See Change requests in the AIR.