Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for the AHECS, an allied health professional must:
- be in private practice
- be registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra)
- have indemnity insurance that:
- provides a level of cover at or above the allied health threshold
- names or refers to the allied health professional in the insurance contract.
For midwives, the cover must be under their employer’s professional indemnity insurance policy.
Allied health threshold
The allied health threshold is currently $20 million. We set the threshold through legislation.
Changes to the threshold only apply to contracts that are signed after we register the updated legislation.
Insurers will have time to reflect any threshold changes in their insurance contracts:
- Increases take effect 3 months before the start of a policy year.
- Decreases take effect at least 3 months after we register the updated legislation.
AHECS and other schemes
The AHECS will cover a claim that is also eligible for the Midwife Professional Indemnity Run-Off Cover Scheme (MPIROCS) if the:
- claim is against a midwife
- midwife’s run-off cover is at or above the allied health threshold
- claim costs exceed the midwife’s run-off cover limit.
Leaving AHECS
Stopping private practice
If an allied health professional stops private practice, they are no longer eligible for the AHECS.
Reducing indemnity cover
If an eligible allied health professional reduces their level of cover to below the allied health threshold, they will no longer be able to access the AHECS.
They can still apply for an AHECS payment for a claim made against them if the incident occurred while they were eligible.