Understanding your responsibilities
As a health provider registered with us, you have certain responsibilities when providing treatment. This includes treating our clients, privacy, rehabilitation and clinical records.
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Your responsibilities
Video transcript for Your responsibilities
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John is sitting in a chair facing the camera. A pot plant, water jug, cup of water and pen and notepad sit in a small table beside him.
Transcript
Dr John Robson: At ACC, we want injured people to receive the appropriate care and treatment for their needs, but we can't do it without you. Here are a few things to know about our expectations now that you’ve joined us.
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One of the most important parts of ensuring everyone gets the support they need is to first make sure we all understand our roles and responsibilities. And we want you to have an appropriate understanding of ACC and how we will be working together.
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When you’re providing treatment to injured people on our behalf, you have some key responsibilities. Act in keeping with your professional body standards and the ACC legislation. Follow our policies and procedures. Maintain appropriate professional clinical records. Provide us with reports and patient notes as requested. Invoice us appropriately, transparently, and on time. Ensure the quality of your treatment. And represent us fairly. Ultimately, it’s all about acting with professionalism, transparency and integrity.
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Screen changes to show Get to know our Working Together handbook
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A good place to start is our Working Together handbook, which you can find on our website. If you’re working under Cost of Treatment Regulations, this will be your guide to understanding our expectations and your responsibilities. Being familiar with it will help ensure your patients receive treatment that helps them to return to work and everyday life as safely and quickly as possible.
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If you’ve signed up to one of our contracts, make sure you’re familiar with your relevant Service Schedule and Operational Guidelines. These are updated with changes in regular cycles, but we’ll let you know ahead of time when this is happening.
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It is important that you read and understand our Position Statements on key issues such as treating your friends and family, providing treatment in a sports setting, same day allied health treatment, and treatment by allied health students.
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And finally, Aotearoa New Zealand has a diverse population and that’s also reflected in the people we support. We want you to deliver your services in a culturally competent manner. This recognises the needs of Māori by understanding, respecting, and delivering services in line with the key principles and frameworks in the New Zealand Māori Health Strategy, He Korowai Oranga. Our cultural safety and competency guidelines will also help you to improve access and deliver appropriate advice, care, and treatment. Being clear on these important issues from the start means we can focus on our shared goals of improving lives, every day.
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Screen rolls through four statements: Act with professionalism, accuracy, integrity. Be familiar with our Working Together handbook. Understand our Position Statements. Be culturally competent.
Screen changes to show For more information and resources visit acc.co.nz/health-providers.
Screen changes again to show the ACC logo and tagline He Kaupare. He Manaaki. He Whakaora. Prevention. Care. Recovery.
As a health provider registered with us and providing treatment to our clients, your responsibilities are to:
- act in keeping with professional standards and our legislation
- follow our policies and procedures when treating our clients
- maintain appropriate professional clinical records
- provide us with reports and patient notes as requested
- invoice us appropriately, honestly, and on time
- ensure quality of treatment
- represent us fairly.
Providers working under contract must be familiar and comply with their contract schedule, our standard terms and conditions, and if applicable, their operational guidelines.
Operational guidelines and service schedules resources
Be familiar with our handbook
If you're working under the Cost of Treatment Regulations, you'll need to be familiar with our Working together handbook. It outlines our expectations and your responsibilities for working together. This will ensure clients receive treatment that helps them to return to work and everyday life as safely and quickly as possible.
Working together - A handbook for providers working under the Cost of Treatment Regulations
Follow our position statements
We've developed position statements that align with many professional standards and our legislation. These clarify our expectations and your responsibilities about:
- treatment of family
- treatment of colleagues
- treating clients in a sports setting
- same day allied health treatment (where a client receives more than one treatment in a day)
- treatment by allied health students.
Stay healthy and safe at work
Your health and safety and that of our clients is important to us.
Together with WorkSafe we offer resources and tools to help you keep healthy and safe.
Report incidents
Providers working under contract must report health and safety incidents to us.
All other providers treating our clients should consider contacting us when there are threats, incidents, or risks to your work with us. This includes:
- personal threats – against you, your employees, another provider or an ACC employee
- organisational threats – to a place of business such as your practice or ACC sites
- any other risks that make you feel unsafe or you believe could cause harm to you or other healthcare providers supporting the client. This includes adverse client behaviour such as bullying or harassment, or sexualised conduct.
Report health and safety incidents
Maintain privacy
If you're working with us as a health provider, you have responsibilities when handling our clients' information.
Protecting privacy as a supplier or provider
Be culturally competent
New Zealand has a diverse population which is reflected in our clients. We expect providers to deliver services in a culturally competent manner.
We expect you to:
- recognise the needs of Māori
- understand, respect, and deliver services in accordance with the key principles and frameworks outlined in the New Zealand Māori Health Strategy, He Korowai Oranga, 2014.
New Zealand Māori Health Strategy, He Korowai Oranga
This framework guides the Government and health and disability sector to achieve the best health outcomes for Māori.
Our cultural safety policy, Kawa Whakaruruhau, sets out our expectations on how cultural safety is to be applied by contracted and non-contracted providers and suppliers who deliver ACC-funded care to kiritaki and whānau.
Kawa Whakaruruhau (Cultural Safety) policy
Our guidance on Māori cultural competencies for providers help you to improve access and deliver appropriate advice, care, and treatment to Māori clients.
Te whānau Māori me ō mahi: Guidance on Māori cultural competencies for providers
Confirm your Children’s Worker Safety Check (CWSC) status
A Children’s Worker Safety Check is a legislative requirement under the Children’s Act 2014.
A safety check may be required for people who:
- currently work with children under the age of 18, without a parent or guardian present
- may work with children in the future.
The purpose of this check is to reduce the risk of harm to young people. The check requires people employed or engaged in work that involves contact with children to be safety checked. This includes face-to-face, over the phone, or email contact.
Even if you don’t personally work with children under the age of 18, you still need to confirm your status with us.
Children’s Worker Safety Checks
Keep appropriate clinical records
The services you provide and invoice us for must be supported by clinical records that meet our requirements and the standards of your professional body.
Your clinical records should:
- be in English or Te Reo Māori on a permanent electronic record or, if on paper, be legible and in pen
- document that you have informed consent to make the claim (via the ACC45 or other, eg telehealth consult)
- be of professional quality that will withstand scrutiny by your professional body, peer review, audit (medical or financial) or a medico-legal challenge
- include the client's claim number
- detail the accident and covered injury/injuries
- describe the injury impact on the client's ability to work or complete activities of everyday life
- have a treatment plan that clearly links to the covered injury/injuries
- show objective assessment and review of the symptoms and treatment duration in relation to the covered injury/injuries
- document situational specific information as described in our position statements, eg if treating colleagues
- show consistency with invoicing
- when time-based billing, accurately record the time taken to provide the treatment directly related to the covered claim. You can't bill any time spent on non-injury related care to ACC.
Provide your clinical records when asked
We may ask you to provide your clinical records to help us make cover decisions and decisions on requests for services such as:
- surgery
- pain management
- weekly compensation
- home help
- extra treatment.
Sometimes we may also request your clinical records to make sure the treatment provided for a covered injury is necessary and appropriate, is of the quality required, and meets our expectations and requirements.
Represent us fairly
Most clients have no direct contact with us. As a health provider, it's important that you represent your relationship with us fairly.
You can't use the ACC logo
The ACC logo is trademarked, so you can't include it on your website, leaflets, or advertising.
As a Crown Entity, we can't:
- make proactive recommendations or endorsements of third parties
- allow the use of our logo to show an endorsement of products or services
- favour one supplier, provider, or vendor over another.
There are several statements you may wish to use to show your relationship with us.
Statements for registered provider's working under Cost of Treatment Regulations
- "Registered ACC Provider"
- "ACC may contribute to the cost of our services".
Statements for providers working under a contract
- "ACC contracted service supplier"
- "Approved ACC service supplier"
- "ACC contracted provider".
Giving clients accurate information about ACC
It’s important that clients receive the correct information about us and your services.
Consumer law requires you to not mislead or deceive consumers about the services you provide.
For example, if you choose not to charge a co-payment, or we pay the full cost, use the statement, 'No surcharge'. You may not refer to treatment being ‘free’. This accurately reflects that we fund the treatment.
For general practices promoting the government's zero-fee scheme for children under 14-years-old, use 'zero fees' instead of 'free' visits.
Fair Trading Act - Consumer Protection website
Providers must not act as if they're representing or acting on behalf of ACC in any way. We ask that you don't advise clients about their ACC claim on our behalf. For example, whether we'll fund support or not. Providing incorrect information is distressing for our clients. We're available to answer questions about claims, cover, and how we work.
Our independent navigation services can provide support and advice around ACC, our legislation, and processes.
Independent support for clients
Invoice us promptly and accurately
Payment information is important to ensure we can meet the needs of our clients. Late invoicing means that we don't have a full understanding of the level of support needed or the healthcare providers involved in a client's recovery. This may cause delays for the client.
We generally expect you to invoice us within two months of the date of service.
You must submit all invoices within 12 months of the date of service. We may not be able to pay you if invoices are submitted after 12 months of the date of service.
We may contact you if we see continued delays with your invoicing.
We encourage you to familiarise yourself with how much can be invoiced, what for and any specific rules that apply. This includes, but aren't limited to:
- quality and quantity of services
- time-based billing
- our position statements
- travel contribution
- clinical record requirements.
We want to pay you promptly. Providers working under contract need to invoice us electronically. We encourage all other providers to take advantage of the benefits of working this way by invoicing us electronically.
Understanding levies if you work or own a business
Everyone who works or owns a business in New Zealand pays levies. These levies cover injuries that happen at work, at home, on the sports field, and when you're out and about.
Understanding levies if you work or own a business
Support quality and resolve issues
Find out how our teams work with providers to share feedback and resolve issues.
How we support quality and resolve issues
Keep your details up to date
It's important to keep your contact information with us up to date. A current, verified email address allows you to receive timely information from us and helps ensure potentially private information is only shared with the intended recipient.
Please let us know any time your contact details change, including if you move clinics.
You can email us your updated contact details:
Email registrations@acc.co.nz