Welcome to our article series on transitioning to PRODA and the Aged Care Provider Portal! In this series we have gathered the most important details to help you transition to Service Australia’s (Medicare) new digital identity verification system (PRODA) and the new online claiming portal (Aged Care Provider Portal).
You can jump to any article at any time, depending on the information you need. If you need any extra assistance, you can get in touch with Provider Assist at team@providerassist.com.au or 1300 419 119.
Do you need assistance directly with logging into your PRODA account; or any technical issues? It is best to contact the PRODA helpline on 1800 700 199 who can help you!
- What is PRODA & the Aged Care Provider Portal?
- Four steps to accessing the Aged Care Provider Portal (ACPP)
- What does the transition to PRODA mean, and what do I need to know to keep my services running?
- Backing up your Aged Care Online Claiming Data before November 2020
- Do you have your Data Access sorted?
- Make sure you check this before submitting your next claim
With the transition from Aged Care Online Claiming (ACOC) to the Aged Care Provider Portal (ACPP), Services Australia have created a new AC004 form with new data access levels. In this article we will compare the previous access levels to the new access levels.
It is important to note that access levels will transition from Aged Care Online Claiming to the Aged Care Provider Portal.
The access transitions are shown in the table below:
The major differences are:
Organisation Administrator – are they as powerful as Spiderman?
Well, in terms of the ACPP and making life a lot easier to manage User access to the Aged Care Provider Portal (and therefore improving data security) , we say – YES! The Organisational Administrator’s power means they have the authority to sign the AC004 form and have their wishes actioned by Services Australia; and even better, utilise the Provider Self-Service function in the ACPP to manage User access themselves. Remember, as always, with great power comes with great responsibility – ensure your data security procedures are strong. Click here to find out more about the Self-Service function.
Organisation Administrators and PRODA Organisation Administrators are like chalk and cheese
The only thing they have in common are the words Organisation Administrator. Organisational Administrators in the context of the Aged Care Provider Portal are the people authorised to sign the AC004 form and perform some functions using the Self-Service function. PRODA Organisation Administrators have different powers to perform totally separate functions – we will cover that in a future article! – but it has nothing to do with the Aged Care Provider Portal.
Becoming the Authorised Person (now known as the Organisation Administrator) is a clear process! Finally!
Hooray! This has been a source of confusion in the past but now the process is straightforward. Simply:
- Fill out the AC004 form (ticking the correct boxes)
- Get it signed by someone authorised
- Email it to Services Australia.
Voila – you will be forever known (until your access is revoked – read further on this below) as an Aged Care Provider Portal Organisation Administrator – #lifegoals!
This process has never been all that clear until now – kudos Services Australia!
Residential Aged Care and Home Care data access is now streamlined!
Levels 8, 10, 12, 13 and 14 have been replaced with three easy to understand levels – View, Financial, Maintain and the role of Organisational Administrator.
(As we migrate to the Aged Care Provider Portal, we will never understand what why there was no level 9 and 11! We will never know and it will forever remain a mystery!
From me – goodbye old levels – I to this day, five years working in Aged Care, still get confused by you!)
You can see each Portal’s Access Levels here:
File Upload is going, going gone! Goodbye!
Farewell or good riddance? Wish the channel luck as you wave it goodbye?
Services Australia have for quite some time wanted to move away from the File Upload method of claiming. This is a tricky channel to support and also proves risky from a security point of view. It is also the channel that from Provider Assist’s experience creates the most data challenges. With this method of claiming going, Providers will need to utilise Web Forms that are available in the Aged Care Provider Portal or utilise the Business to Government Channel (B2G) channel (currently known as the PKI or Public Key Infrastructure or B2B channel).
From the Services Australia website:
Residential Care Providers that use file upload can only view and access information in the new portal. The Aged Care Provider Portal doesn’t have a file upload function. You’ll still need to use the existing portal to upload your files.
With the ACOC retiring in November – so did the file upload channel.
User Access expires after 12 months, unless…
In the previous ACOC system, User access did not expire. In the new system, unless you specify an end date for access to the service’s data, team members with User access will only have access to the data for 12 months.
You can view this situation as follows:
- If Users have access revoked every 12 months you will have an additional administrative process you need to complete every twelve months – and it is highly unlikely Users will be reminded before access is to be revoked.
- On the flip side, you are highly unlikely to have Users who have access to your Organisation’s data for too long when they should not;
- If you list an end date sometime in the future – for example in five years’ time – your Organisation will need strong procedures for ensuring the names of Users who have access to your Organisation’s data via the Aged Care Provider Portal is regularly reviewed.
Self-service is here!
Our dream of a self-service mechanism to monitor and maintain who has access to our Organisation’s data via the Aged Care Provider Portal is finally reality! Previously, the only way to review Users with access to your data was to request a list from Services Australia, and complete the necessary paperwork to have any Users who need their access revoked, revoked. This process is still available, however Organisation Administrators now have the power to utilise the ACPP Provider Self-Service function. The Self-Service function won’t give Organisation Administrators the power to do everything – and they will still need to use the AC004 form for certain updates. However, it does give an Organisation Administrator the ability to remove User access and change access levels – a big plus for keeping on top of your User access. To find out more head to Service Australia’s education modules here and select ACPP Provider Self-Service.
Thanks for the analysis – I enjoyed the read – what do I need to do?
Thankfully, if you have signed up for PRODA and can access the Aged Care Provider Portal, and you can access the Aged Care Services you were able to access in Aged Care Online Claiming – you don’t need to do any more. You could choose to do the following:
Spring Clean who has access to your Organisation’s data
A new system and new processes – so what better time for an access review! To do this:
- You need to be an authorised representative of your Organisation (also known as Organisation Administrator in this new world);
- Option 1:
- Log into the ACPP
- Navigate to the Search bar at the top of the screen and type the Facility or RAC number you wish to review Users for and select it
- Navigate to the Menu on the left-hand side.
- Under the heading Service Management, select “Service User summary”.
- A list will display with all Active Users for this service (and any submitted New User requests)
- To remove a User, update the access end date. Entering today’s date will mean access will expire at midnight
Consider any new team members that need access to your Organisation’s data. Sharing is caring! If you have Team Members that could benefit from access to your Organisation’s data:
- Log into the ACPP
- Navigate to the Search bar at the top of the screen and type the Facility or RAC number you wish to review Users for and select it
- Navigate to the Menu on the left-hand side
- To add an existing User, select “User Search”, find the User and select “Add Service”.
- To add a brand new User, navigate to the Menu on the left-hand side.
- Under the heading Service Management, select “Service User summary”, then “Register User” to request the creation of a new User.
For more information on these steps, follow the ‘Provider Self-Service tips & tricks in the ACPP Self-Service function.
- Option 2:
- You need to email care.liaison@servicesaustralia.gov.au and request Users that have access to your Organisation’s data via the Aged Care Provider Portal;
- You need to complete this form to revoke any Users: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/health-professionals/forms/ac004
- Email the form to aged.care.liaison@servicesaustralia.gov.au
- They will notify you when the process has been completed
Consider any new team members that need access to your Organisation’s data. Sharing is caring! If you have Team Members that could benefit from access to your Organisation’s data:
- Complete the form located at: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/health-professionals/forms/ac004
- Email the form to aged.care.liaison@servicesaustralia.gov.au
Develop a process for ongoing reviews of who has access to your Organisation’s data
The most important takeaway is that your Organisation needs a process to maintain and manage who has access to your Organisation’s data via the Aged Care Provider Portal. This Portal should be viewed as another System within your Organisation a team member has access to. So just like when a Team Member leaves and you revoke network and email access – you need to revoke access to the Aged Care Provider Portal.
Third Parties and Access
Many Aged Care Providers are supported by third party service providers such as Provider Assist. These relationships are often deep, long lasting and are key to ensuring your Organisation can focus on delivering Remarkable Care. However, like with any team member who has access to your data – trust is impeccable here.
Data Security and building trust with Aged Care Providers are two of the key elements when establishing ongoing relationships. As such, to continue supporting your Organisation we need a minimum of View and Financial access.
If a provider requests Maintain access – your Organisation needs strong processes to review any registering, updating or deleting of events they perform – as ultimately, your Organisation is responsible for your data.
You should never grant Organisational Administrator access to a third party – even if you have an outsourced management style arrangement in place. Maintain access will cover the functions they need to perform.
How does Provider Assist use this access?
Think of Provider Assist, in particular MyVitals, Revenue Hero & Supplement Recovery as story telling services. We tell a story through data. To tell these stories we need to be able to review your data. We need to be able to do this to correct any weird stories that exist in the data, claim unclaimed funds and ensure your Organisation is performing at its peak.
Having access to this data is a privilege – we acknowledge this and our data policies can be viewed here.
Services Australia Resources
AC004 – Register, Amend or Remove Users access to the Aged Care Provider Portal: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/health-professionals/forms/ac004
ACPP Provider Self-Service education modules:
http://medicareaust.com/PROGRAMS/ACPP/ACPPMS01/index.html
Change is hard!
At Provider Assist – we understand you want to focus on providing the best possible care to Older Australians. We are here to guide you through the process. Contact Provider Assist and we will schedule a session where we can walk you through setting up PRODA, accessing the new Provider Portal and have a quick chat about your MyVitals data.
For more information on PRODA and the new Aged Care Provider Portal or if you would like to know more about what the transition to PRODA and the ACPP means, read our article series starting here.
 | AARON TABONE – CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Author |
About the Author
Aaron Tabone is the Chief Information Officer of Provider Assist. He describes himself as the ‘hands on’ CIO – writing functional and technical scopes, analysing data and designing new systems – if it is digital, Aaron will give it a go! Aaron has lead the digital transformation strategy which included digitising MyVitals, creating ACFI Assessment Hero and Revenue Hero, integrating Provider Assist to Medicare’s API channel and migrating the business to Salesforce. Aaron has a passion for Aged Care data and has been a key stakeholder to Services Australia for their new Aged Care Provider Portal and Web Services data channel. Aaron’s work has been recognised by Salesforce through a number of case studies and speaking appearances at World Tour and Connections events.
Outside Provider Assist, Aaron recently acted as the Digital Architect on a telehealth project integrating into the Salesforce eco system, Medicare electronic claiming and electronic prescribing.
Aaron lives on the Great Ocean Road in Anglesea with his wife Victoria, son Harvey and two pugs Winston and Phoebe. When he is not working, you will find him mountain biking or running through the nearby forest, attempting to surf, cooking, gardening or enjoying a glass of wine (or two!)
To contact Aaron: Email aaront@providerassist.com.au | skype aaron.tabone1 | linkedin aaron-tabone
