A Consultation Paper To Inform The
Development Of An Information
Technology Strategy For The Hearing
Services Program
This paper has been compiled by the Office of Hearing Services. Issues and ideas canvassed
in the paper are not Australian Government policy and should not be represented as such.
Feedback received will be treated confidentially.
Consultation paper on development of an
information technology strategy
Contents
How to respond to this paper .............................................................................................. 4
Confidentiality ...................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5
Background ...................................................................................................................... 5
Purpose of this paper ....................................................................................................... 6
Scope...................................................................................................................................... 6
Potential areas for reducing red tape and costs for service providers ............................ 6
Development of business integration infrastructure .................................................... 6
Other enhancements to the portal .................................................................................. 7
Consultation questions......................................................................................................... 7
Type of business model .................................................................................................... 7
Information systems......................................................................................................... 7
Availability of information .............................................................................................. 8
Quality of information. .................................................................................................... 9
Experience with business integration of information. .................................................. 9
Attitude to business integration. ................................................................................... 10
Opportunity for additional comments. ........................................................................ 10
Appendix 1 .......................................................................................................................... 12
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Abbreviations
CSO
HLPP
NHMRC
Office
Program
Community Service Obligations Program
Hearing Loss Prevention Program
National Health and Medical Research Council
Office of Hearing Services
Australian Government Hearing Services Program
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How to respond to this paper
Please provide concise responses to the consultation questions posed in this paper. If you
would like to submit additional information, please provide this separately to your responses
to the consultation questions.
Email is the preferred mode of submission. Please email submissions to:
ohs.it@health.gov.au.
Written submissions can be mailed to:
The Director
Information and Technology Section
Office of Hearing Services
Department of Health
MDP 113
GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2601
After the Office of Hearing Services (the “Office”) has reviewed your submission we may
need to come back to you to discuss or clarify your responses.
The deadline for submissions is Friday 2nd May 2014. Earlier submissions are welcome.
Confidentiality
Feedback provided to the Office will be utilised to the development of an information
strategy, including possible business integration solutions for the Hearing Services Voucher
Program. The Office will respect the confidentiality of businesses and individuals who
provide feedback.
Important note: Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Office may be required to
publish a summary report of this consultation on the Australian Government Department of
Health website. No confidential or commercially sensitive information will be included in the
report.
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Consultation paper on development of an
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Introduction
Background
1.1.1 The Office administers the Australian Government Hearing Services Program (the
“Program”). The Program consists of two service components and a research
component:
(a)
The Voucher Program involves the administration of a system for eligible
clients to receive hearing services and management of more than 220 providers
of hearing services.
(b)
The Community Service Obligations (CSO) Program is administered by the
Office, and Australian Hearing is funded to deliver services to certain eligible
groups.
(c)
The Hearing Loss Prevention Program (HLPP) which funds research into
prevention activities to address avoidable hearing loss with the research grants
administered by the National Health and Medical Research Council
(NHMRC).
The current regulatory framework for the Program has been in place since 1997 to support
the shift from a monopoly government provider to a contestable service delivery
environment. A recent review was conducted into the regulatory framework which
indicated that it was unnecessarily complex, had overlapping, redundant and overly
prescriptive regulation, conditions and obligations placed on service providers.
http://hearingservices.gov.au/wps/portal/hso/site/about/usefulinfo/consultations/previo
us/regulatory_framework_ohs_intro
The Office has commenced a range of activities within the existing legislative framework to
address some of these issues; including reviewing a number of administrative
processes; implementing a risk based approach to audit and compliance; and a review
of device specifications and supply arrangements. A new online portal has also been
developed for the Voucher Program and was released on 17 February 2014. The
portal replaced many existing paper based manual processes such as applications,
eligibility checking and, through secure authorised access to client information, offers
service providers better ways to manage their caseload. This will significantly reduce
red tape for service providers and improve access to the program for citizens by
reducing the waiting times and number of paper forms needed to access hearing
services.
The portal is a first step in easing the red tape burden and modernising the Voucher Program.
There is potential to achieve additional reductions in red tape including examining
opportunities associated with increased use of Information Technology (IT) systems
and electronic information exchange.
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The Office has previously engaged with service providers in both the e-business forum and
focus groups as part of the development of the portal and has received feedback that
service providers are supportive of further reform in the area of IT systems and
information exchange.
Purpose of this paper
The purpose of this consultation paper is to seek feedback and advice from the Office’s
stakeholders, including service providers, industry professionals, and device
manufacturers, about the availability of information for exchange with Government.
The paper also offers opportunities to explore potential enhancement of the online
portal, for example the development of business integration capability and
infrastructure. Specific consultation questions are posed throughout the paper (a full
list of questions is provided in Appendix 1).
Feedback received from service providers will be used by the Office to help draft an
Information Technology Strategy (the “Strategy”) to:
(a)
Define what information is available from service providers to support the
efficient administration and delivery of hearing services to clients in the
Voucher Program.
(b)
Identify what capacity would be required by service providers and what
information is suitable and appropriate for inclusion in the development of
possible enhancements to the portal or other potential red tape reduction
activities associated with use of IT and information.
Scope
A number of questions relate to the type of business model the service provider operates
under. The Office has identified four categories of business models for service
providers in the Voucher Program based on revenue. The number of service providers
operating under each business model is relevant to any potential enhancements or
reform activity consideration in terms of cost/benefit impact across the sector.
A business process is defined as a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that
produce a specific service or product. In the context of the Voucher Program an
example might be the registration of a client’s personal details after a client has
contacted the service provider.
Potential areas for reducing red tape and costs for service providers
Development of business integration infrastructure
The current design of the portal is for single client based enquiries and voucher
application processes. A business integration infrastructure could be developed to
enable the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses and
government. One potential benefit of increased business integration between service
providers and the Office would be to enable submission of multiple (ie: bulk)
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processing requests for a number of clients at the one time, for example: return client
voucher requests. Business integration capability could support greater exchange of
information via the portal and reduce the number of times service providers would
need to access the portal to carry out administrative processes. A range of options for
how a business integration model might work would also need to be scoped (from
basic file exchange to use of a sophisticated web service) including the cost associated
for each stakeholder (ie: the Office, service providers, device manufacturers and
software vendors).
Other enhancements to the portal
After participating in User Acceptance Testing of the portal, service providers offered
feedback about potential enhancements to the portal. For example managing sites,
clients and user access could be undertaken from a site that does not provide hearing
services (e.g. head office).
Consultation questions
Type of business model
To understand the way that service providers interact with the Voucher Program and
provide hearing services to voucher clients, the Office is seeking feedback on the
availability of information that is used by business to support business activity in the
Voucher Program.
The Office has categorised service providers on the basis of the revenue they generate
from the Voucher Program in a financial year and an estimate of the average number
of clients who receive a hearing service.
Questions for consultation:
Q1:
In terms of annual revenue and clients who receive voucher services in the
Voucher Program how do you categorise the size of your business?
Large Business
(>$2m revenue or
average of 30,000
clients per fin year)
Medium
Business
(>$200K & <$2m
revenue or average of
600 clients per fin
year)
Small Business
(>$50k and <$200K
revenue or average
of 200 clients per
fin year)
Micro
Business
(<$50K revenue or
average of 50 clients
per fin year)
Information systems
Given that the current Voucher Program uses a combination of manual processes (e.g.
client voucher registration) and semi-automated processes (e.g. requests for return
voucher request forms), understanding how your information systems support your
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activity in the Voucher Program is important in gauging the impact and potential
benefits from a business integration solution.
Questions for consultation:
Q2:
How is your information system set up to support work in the Voucher
Program (client registration, hearing service provision, claims for payment)?

Fully centralised – all business activities are registered and processed in a
central system.

Partially centralised – some business activities are registered and processed
using a central system and some business activities are decentralised and
supported at the business site.

Decentralised – all business activities are registered and processed in local
systems set up at the business site.
Where business activities are partially centralised, please describe which activities are
centralised.
Availability of information
The Office recognises that service providers need to collect, store and access
information on a range of activities that link together to enable the delivery of services
under the Voucher Program.
There may be a range of options for managing this. For example: some service
providers capture all information and store it in one information system which is
accessible by all relevant staff; while other service providers may use a number of
information systems to capture and store information; other service providers may use
a combination of IT systems and paper based systems.
Questions for consultation:
Q3:
How do you store and access information used for each of the following
information domains?

Client registration (e.g. client identifiers, voucher details, contact information)

Correspondence management (e.g. letters sent to voucher clients and letters
about clients sent to the Office)

Clinical information (e.g. client clinical files including results from audio
tests)

Hearing device information (e.g. type & features of hearing devices fitted to
voucher clients)

Business information (e.g. business registration, business site information)

Workforce information (e.g. hours worked, type of qualification)

Financial services (e.g. claims for hearing services)
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(For example: My staff input information into both a Microsoft EXCEL and a
Microsoft ACCESS database on my voucher clients. Only one staff member can
access this database at a single point in time.)
Please specify if your client information is stored on-site, on a local area network or in
the “Cloud”.
Q4:
If your information is stored electronically, do you use in-house or commercial
systems?
(For example: My company registers a voucher client into an in-house
ORACLE database, which is accessible to all staff.)
Quality of information.
To develop a business integration model, the Office will need to understand the
arrangements you have in place to safeguard access to your information (ie: security)
and the quality controls you have in place to ensure information is accurate and up-todate. Note that under the terms of the current contract between service providers and
the Office, client information is owned by the Commonwealth.
Questions for consultation:
Q5:
Who is your preferred source of truth for information collection (Government
or Service Provider)?
(For example: My company collects information directly from our clients but
acknowledge that the information stored by Government is considered more
relevant to administrative processes concerning client access to the Voucher
Program.)
Q6:
How do you verify the data you collect and what do you do if you discover a
data quality issue?
(For example: My company submits a request for a return voucher request
form to the Office. The Office advises my company that the client already has
a voucher so we update our client records. In situations where our data is
inaccurate we attempt to obtain more up-to-date information from external
sources).
Q7:
How does your company protect security and privacy of client information?
(For example: My company stores client data on a network drive that is only
accessible to company staff who have a secure logon and password to access
the client data.)
Experience with business integration of information.
To identify if your business has had any prior experience in the development of
business integration to enable the flow of data between internal and/or external
information systems.
Questions for consultation:
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Q8:
What is the level of integration of data between your existing information for
each of the following information domains (Please indicate if this is internal or
external information flow)?

Client registration (e.g. client identifiers, voucher details, contact information)

Correspondence management (e.g. letters sent to voucher clients and letters
about clients sent to the Office)

Clinical information (e.g. client clinical files including results from audio
tests)

Hearing device information (e.g. type & features of hearing devices fitted to
voucher clients)

Business information (e.g. business registration, business site information)

Workforce information (e.g. hours worked, type of qualification)

Financial services (e.g. claims for hearing services)
(For example: My company has fully integrated client registration information
with correspondence management and clinical information. Information is
captured once and then passed onto each information system.)
Q9:
In the context of business integration, what other business do you undertake
with Government? (State, Federal or any other government bodies)
(For example: My company also undertakes work for a state workers
compensation scheme and we integrated our client registration information
system with theirs to enable the efficient processing of client information.)
Attitude to business integration.
To gauge your reaction to a possible future project to increase the level of information
sharing between business and government.
Questions for consultation:
Q10: What do you believe are the opportunities/benefits created by increasing the
level of information sharing with Government?
Q11: What are the barriers that you believe restrict your business’s ability to share
information with Government or costs created by increasing the level of
information sharing with Government?
Opportunity for additional comments.
Questions for consultation:
Q12: If you have any additional comments and suggestions on the topic of business
integration with government, please respond here.
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Appendix 1
Consultation questions
Q1:
In terms of annual revenue and clients who receive voucher services in the Voucher
Program how do you categorise the size of your business?
Large Business
(>$2m revenue or
average of 30,000
clients per fin year)
Q2:
Medium
Business
(>$200K & <$2m
revenue or average of
600 clients per fin
year)
Small Business
(>$50k and <$200K
revenue or average
of 200 clients per
fin year)
Micro
Business
(<$50K revenue or
average of 50 clients
per fin year)
How is your information system setup to support work in the Voucher Program (client
registration, hearing service provision, claims for payment)?

Fully centralised – all business activities are registered and processed in a
central system.

Partially centralised – some business activities are registered and processed
using a central system and some business activities are decentralised and
supported at the business site.

Decentralised – all business activities are registered and processed in local
systems setup at the business site.
Where business activities are partially centralised, please describe which activities are
centralised.
Q3:
How do you store and access information used for each of the following information
domains?

Client registration (e.g. client identifiers, voucher details, contact information)

Correspondence management (e.g. letters sent to voucher clients and letters
about clients sent to the OHS)

Clinical information (e.g. client clinical files including results from audio tests)

Hearing device information (e.g. type & features of hearing devices fitted to
voucher clients)

Business information (e.g. business registration, business site information)

Workforce information (e.g. hours worked, type of qualification)
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
Financial services (e.g. claims for hearing services)
(For example: My staff input information into both a Microsoft EXCEL and a
Microsoft ACCESS database on my voucher clients. Only one staff member can
access this database at a single point in time.)
Please specify if your client information is stored on-site, on a local area network or in
the “Cloud”.
Q4:
If your information is stored electronically, do you use in-house or commercial
systems?
(For example: My company registers a voucher client into an in-house ORACLE
database, which is accessible to all staff.)
Q5:
Who is your preferred source of truth for information collection (Government or
Service Provider)?
(For example: My company collects information directly from our clients but
acknowledge that the information stored by Government is considered more relevant
to administrative processes concerning client access to the Voucher Program.)
Q6:
How do you verify the data you collect and what do you do if you discover a data
quality issue?
(For example: My company submits a request for a return voucher request form to the
Office. The Office advises my company that the client already has a voucher so we
update our client records. In situations where our data is inaccurate we attempt to
obtain more up-to-date information from external sources).
Q7:
What IT security infrastructure does your business use to protect the security and
privacy of client information stored in your systems?
(For example: My company stores client data on a network drive that is only
accessible to company staff who have a secure logon and password to access the
client data.)
Q8:
What is the level of integration of data between your existing information for each of
the following information domains (Please indicate if this is internal or external
information flow)?

Client registration (e.g. client identifiers, voucher details, contact information)

Correspondence management (e.g. letters sent to voucher clients and letters
about clients sent to the Office)

Clinical information (e.g. client clinical files including results from audio tests)

Hearing device information (e.g. type & features of hearing devices fitted to
voucher clients)

Business information (e.g. business registration, business site information)

Workforce information (e.g. hours worked, type of qualification)
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
Financial services (e.g. claims for hearing services)
(For example: My company has fully integrated client registration information with
correspondence management and clinical information. Information is captured once
and then passed onto each information system.)
Q9:
In the context of business integration, what other business do you undertake with
Government?
(For example: My company also undertakes work for a state workers compensation
scheme and we integrated our client registration information system with theirs to
enable the efficient processing of client information.)
Q10: What do you believe are the opportunities/benefits created by increasing the level of
information sharing with Government?
Q11: What are the barriers that you believe restrict your business’ ability to share
information with Government or costs created by increasing the level of information
sharing with Government?
Q12: If you have any additional comments and suggestions on the topic of business
integration with government, please respond here?
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