March 2015
Immigration New Zealand
INZ Health Project update
Rollout - Global Panel
Physician Network,
eMedical, policy change
and organisational change
eMedical - Staged deployment
• Stage One – 24 November 2014 ‘soft’ launch
- eMedical is enabled for INZ and extended to six countries, supported by
seven INZ offices offshore.
• Stage Two – 31 January 2015 – eMedical offshore
- eMedical extended to all existing offshore eMedical-enabled countries
(except Australia). This brought a total of 128 countries onto eMedical,
to capture 80 per cent of INZ’s offshore medical examinations
electronically.
• Stage Three – 30 March 2015 – eMedical onshore
- eMedical extended to New Zealand’s new panel physician network.
Expected to be deployed in at least 145 clinics (medical and radiology).
• Future eMedical deployment
- Future deployment is still to be developed, but will be supported by all
three eMedical participant agencies. INZ will focus on South Pacific
deployment in Samoa and Tonga initially.
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eMedical - Stage One countries
Cambodia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam
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eMedical - Stage Two countries
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus,
Belgium, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria,
Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland,
France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras,
Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia,
Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar,
Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama,
Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tahiti, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey,
Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia
and Zimbabwe
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eMedical - Stage Three countries
Australia and New Zealand become eMedical-enabled for INZ.
All other remaining countries will be included in eMedical if they are enabled by INZ’s
partner agencies in Australia and Canada prior to 30 March 2015.
If not, clinics will be advised to directly submit their paper-based medicals to INZ following
completion – enabling centralised management of health processing and digitisation.
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eMedical - Additional information
• Where a panel clinic has been selected offshore, this clinic will support INZ visa
applicants and those of our partner agency in Australia (Department of
Immigration and Border Protection).
• In countries where an eMedical-enabled panel network has been established, all
applicants must have their INZ medical examinations completed through
eMedical.
• Some countries where INZ did not have a panel physician network have now
been eMedical-enabled, meaning that panel physicians are now required to
complete medical examinations. Where you hear a clinic is continuing to
complete paper-based medicals in these locations please advise INZ.
• All countries completing INZ medical examinations using eMedical will use the
same version of eMedical – i.e. physicians in Canada will complete INZ medicals
using INZ’s eMedical settings in all instances.
eMedical - Policy changes
• Minor policy change was deployed in Stage One (24 November 2014). Changes
are reflected in eMedical and in the new version of INZ’s paper-based medical
certificates.
• Most changes were to amend or remove questions that were asked in the
previous version of the medical forms, and to bring INZ into alignment with our
eMedical partner agencies in Australia and Canada, where this made sense to do
so.
• Changes were discussed with members of the medical community and internal
policy and legal staff to ensure INZ continue to comply with the objective of our
health policy:
A4.1 Objective
The objectives of Health instructions are to:
a. protect public health in New Zealand; and
b. ensure that people entering New Zealand do not impose excessive costs and demands on
New Zealand's health and special education services; and
c. where applicable, ensure that applicants for entry to New Zealand are able to undertake the
functions for which they have been granted entry.
eMedical - Organisational changes
• INZ’s new health processing model includes eMedical as the primary interface for
panel physicians, and is supported by an internal platform called the Immigration
Health System.
• Because health processes are now digitised through these platforms, clearance
and triage of health information can be managed more effectively and quickly.
• Where manual intervention is required this is now managed centrally.
Engagement with INZ should remain with immigration officers or through the
Immigration Contact Centre.
• Where issues need to be raised and managed we have provisioned additional
support and monitoring in the Immigration Contact Centre
Phone numbers: 0800 542469 (LIAINZ), or 09 969 1464 if the caller is within
Auckland
Email: adviserenquiries@mbie.govt.nz
Health process changes in
New Zealand
Health Process Changes in New Zealand
• Changes to New Zealand’s onshore panel physician network will be deployed at
the same time eMedical is deployed onshore – from 30 March 2015.
• Onshore clinics not selected for the panel physician network will have a three
month period to continue completing paper-based medical certificates – this
transition period will enable unsuccessful clinics an opportunity to review and
amend their business if necessary.
• INZ expect at least 145 medical and radiology clinics to join our onshore panel
physician network. This contrasts with Australia’s coverage of 36 clinics onshore,
and Canada’s 106.
• The network enables full geographic coverage except in nine small towns where
additional support for either a medical or radiology clinic will be sought in the
next month.
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Health Process Changes in New Zealand
• Clinics appointed to the INZ panel physician network onshore will be required to
sign and comply with contract, with the following provision:
Payment for the Services (medical or radiological examinations on behalf of INZ) is
your responsibility, with fees recovered by you directly from the visa applicant. You
must charge INZ visa applicants a reasonable fee for the Services. You must also
clearly publish a list of all your fees for the Services at your clinic, and on any website
you maintain.
• Clinics will also be audited onshore by INZ personnel. Audits will include a review
of fees.
• Feedback on excess fees or allegations of poor practice following the changes will
be gratefully received by INZ.
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Requests for Information
INZ Health Project - new high-level process
Prepare an INZ visa application
Australia’s Department of
Immigration and Border
Protection (DIBP)
Supply medical information (~120,000pa)
Client finds
INZ Panel
Physician
(PP)
PP Submits
Medical Exam
Data via
eMedical
eMedical Case
Attachments
e.g. INZ 1160, X-ray
images
eMedical Case Data
e.g. Client identity data
and examination
results
Business to
Business Gateway
(B2B)
[Commercial In Confidence]
INZ Health Project - new high-level process
eMedical
health
case
received
Manual Intervention and Assessment by
Health Assessment Team (HAT)
Medical
Assessors
Automatic
Assessment
~60-80% of health
cases expected
to be considered
Acceptable
Standard of
Health (ASH)
ASH
ASH With Conditions
Not ASH
Health Status Assessment Outcome
INZ staff member (internal user)
Staff involved in assessing the
corresponding INZ visa
application will be able to access
the health case outcome and
related information
[Commercial In Confidence]
Key Principles - Code of Patient Rights
• A number of key principles can be stated, based on the duty of care and the duty to
provide information affirmed in Rights 4(1) and 6(1) of the Code of Patients' Rights.
• At the time any test is proposed, patients have a right to be told by their doctor why
the test is recommended, and when and how they will be informed of the results.
• If a doctor or medical centre has a standard practice of not notifying normal test
results, patients must be informed and their consent obtained to non-notification in
such circumstances.
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Key Principles - Code of Patient Rights
• It must be made clear to patients that they are entitled to be notified of all test
results, and that even if they agree to be notified only of abnormal results, they are
welcome to call the medical centre and check whether their results have been
received and what they are.
• In the absence of any other arrangement being made, when results are received by a
medical centre, the patient must be informed. This is especially important if the
results raise a clinical concern and need follow-up.
• A doctor is responsible for having an efficient system for identifying and following up
overdue test results
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Automated email content
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE - PLEASE DO NOT REPLY
You have received this message because you have recently undertaken a health
examination as a requirement for your New Zealand visa application, and you advised at
that time that you wanted your health examination results sent to you at this email
address.
Your health examination has now been completed and submitted to Immigration New
Zealand (INZ). If you wish to receive a copy of your health examination results you will
need to contact the panel clinic where your examination was completed and request this
information. It is recommended that you submit your visa application to INZ within three
months of receiving this email. If you do not, you may be required to provide new
medical information to INZ. Your health examination results will not be assessed by INZ
until your visa application is received.
Your health examination results show no abnormal or significant findings. This does not
necessarily mean that you have an acceptable standard of health for the purposes of
your visa application. INZ will contact you, however, if it has any concerns and requires
further information about your health.
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Automated email content (continued)
Any queries you may have about your health examination results should be directed to
the panel clinic where your examination was completed. Otherwise, for queries about
your visa application please contact the INZ Contact Centre.
You can keep your health examination results for your future reference. If you have an
immigration adviser or lawyer, or person not requiring licensing assisting you with your
visa application, you may wish to share your health examination results with them.
Alternative message
Your health examination has now been completed. To receive a copy of your health
examination results you will need to contact the panel clinic where your examination
was completed and request this information.
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Clarification - requests for information
• Immigration Contact Centre has clarified with the INZ Health Project that medical
information requested must be managed through a process to support the
provisions of the Privacy Act 1993.
• This means medical results requested by a representative (LIAs, or those exempt
from licensing) will need to be referred to a Privacy Team to be handled – with
the intention of eliminating risk associated with providing incorrect information,
or information to an incorrect or inappropriate party.
• Because this process may otherwise take some time, the INZ Health Project has
introduced a quick print function in late January which can allow a full health
case and supporting information to be produced with a single click of a button.
The intention is that this will enable INZ’s Privacy Team to respond more
promptly to requests for health information by applicants or their
representatives.
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Further information:
Additional information can be found on the INZ website
here:
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/healthinfo/
And here:
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/community/stream/facilit
ate/medical/
To submit information relating to panel physician
performance:
INZ-healthproject@mbie.govt.nz
For any other issues please contact the Immigration
Contact Centre’s dedicated Immigration Adviser
mechanisms:
Phone numbers: 0800 542469 (LIAINZ), or 09 969 1464 if
the caller is within Auckland
Email: adviserenquiries@mbie.govt.nz