Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) – palliative care entry process in the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal

Welcome to this training video, which is part of a series of videos that will provide you with guidance on how to use some of the key features in the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal.

In this short video, we will cover:

• Palliative Care Entry Arrangements
• Actions on the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal; including
  • how to upload documents required for palliative clients
  • and how to action Palliative care notifications
• And some frequently asked questions.

To start, this slide provides a brief overview of the palliative care eligibility criteria.

AN-ACC class 1 is designed for people entering a residential aged care facility for the purpose of receiving palliative care. 

For a person to be assigned AN-ACC class 1, they must have a palliative care status. This involves an assessment by an independent medical practitioner or nurse practitioner confirming that before the day of entry to residential care that the resident had an:

• An estimated life expectancy of 3 months or less AND
• an Australia-Modified Karnofsky Performance score (AKPS) of 40 or less, which provides evidence of significant frailty.

The medical practitioner or nurse practitioner must do this by completing the palliative care status form which is available on the Department of Health and Aged Care website.

The Palliative Care Status form also requires an acknowledgement from the resident, or their My Aged Care representative, and the facility they are entering to receive palliative care.

The website is: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/palliative-care-status-form

Palliative care residents with a correct form will not need an AN-ACC assessment. This is to protect the dignity of residents who are near the end of life, and their families. It is important that you fill out each section of the form correctly to avoid any delays in the approval process. Upon receiving the correct information, the Department of Health and Aged Care will assign the resident the Palliative Care AN-ACC classification – AN-ACC class 1.

Let’s have a look at the palliative care entry process.

When a palliative care client first enters care, you’ll need to create a client entry record in the Services Australia Provider Portal and ensure you select the palliative care indicator. The resident will then be assigned the default Palliative class – class 98.

You will need to then upload a completed Palliative Care Status Form to the My Aged Care Service and Support portal within 14 days of creating a client entry record.

The resident will be assigned AN-ACC class 1 if their palliative care status is confirmed. The department may grant an extension to this timeframe in exceptional circumstances.

To view a list of palliative care clients in your facility, you will need to take the following actions:

Once you have logged into the My Aged Care Service and Portal Portal, click on the ‘Residential Care’ Tile, from the landing page. You can always navigate back to this page using the top navigation menu.

From there click on the Palliative Care tab underneath the Residential Care heading.

When you click on the palliative care tab, any resident for whom there are outstanding actions for example, you need to upload documents) they will appear at the top of the list of residents and will have colour coding showing that an action is needed to be taken.

To Upload the Palliative Care Status Form, you will need to take the following actions:

Once you have logged into the portal, navigate to the Residential care tile form the landing page and select the Palliative Care tab located under the Residential Care Heading. From there, Open the client record required

You can Click Upload Palliative Documentation and select the files you wish to upload

Finally Click Submit Documentation

The My Aged Care Service and Support Portal includes notifications to help you remember actions required. One type of notifications is a reminder to upload to palliative care documents.

 

Notifications can be found by clicking on the “Tasks and notifications” tile from the landing page or  the top navigation menu.

 

From there Click on the Notifications tab underneath the tasks and notifications heading.  

 

A person with Team Lead permissions, can also manage notifications to receive an email alert when a notification comes in.

The next two slides aim to answer a few questions you may have

Question 1 - How do I know if the palliative care status form has been accepted?

Following submission of your palliative care status form, the status of the record will change from ‘Pending Upload’ to ‘Pending Approval’. If the form has been completed correctly, a Departmental Officer will approve the request and the status will change to ‘Approved’. An AN-ACC class 1 will be applied. Where more information is required, the Departmental Officer will change the status to ‘More Information Requested’. You will receive a notification that more information has been requested, and you have an additional 14 days to submit the documentation.

Question 2 - Are there file type and size limits for palliative care documentation?

Yes. A maximum of 5 documents may be uploaded for the palliative care process. The Palliative Care Status Form itself must be submitted in PDF format. Additional documentation if requested may be submitted with file types .jpeg, .jpg, .bmp, .png, or .pdf. Each individual file must be under 5mb.

Question 3 - What happens if the palliative care form submitted is not approved by the Department?

The status of the request will change to ‘Rejected’. The default class 98 that was assigned to the resident will be changed to default class 99 and a referral for assessment will be issued to determine the AN-ACC classification. This will occur if the criteria has not being met e.g. life expectancy of the resident is actually between “3 and 6 months” or the AKPS is 50.

If a correctly completed ‘Palliative care status form’ is not uploaded within 14 days of notification of entry, or is not submitted at all, the resident will be referred for an AN-ACC assessment to determine their classification. The department may grant an extension to this timeframe in exceptional circumstances. 

Question 4 - What happens if the resident lives longer than 3 months after entering the service? Is a new status form required?

There is no requirement for another assessment by a medical professional or another form. Once a resident has palliative status, they will remain in Class 1 until they (or their provider) requests a reassessment or the resident leaves care.

You can find more information in the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal User Guide which is available from the Department of Health and Aged Care website. Simply search ‘Provider Portal User Guide.

If you need any more information, there are lots of ways to get help

• You can watch past webinars
• You can Subscribe to the newsletter to always be up to date
• You can Engage with fact feeds on the aged care funding reform website
• Or you can ask questions by emailing us at acfr @ health.gov.au