When an NDIS client cancels an appointment (Service Event) after a certain time on the day prior to the appointment, the agency is permitted by NDIA to charge the client a cancellation fee. The cut off time is determined by NDIA.
When a client cancels an appointment the agency should consider the following:
The NDIS Claim Type will need to be changed to Cancellation for the relevant Service Units by a Worker (this could be Admin, Reception, Finance, Counsellor etc).
The agency needs to ensure they are not charging cancellation fees beyond the maximum that NDIA allows for each Individual.
Using Action Triggers and either User Defined fields or Documents can help agencies ensure that both of these activities are completed.
Notifying Workers that a Cancellation has occurred
The best way to notify Workers that a Cancellation has occurred is by using an Alert or General Workflow Action Trigger that triggers when the Attendance of a Service Event changes to a Status that may indicate a Cancellation Fee should be charged (e.g. No Show or Late Cn; Bill As NoShow).
To configure an Action Trigger you will need to be logged in with a System Administrator account.
Here are some useful steps to help you configure your Action Triggers for managing NDIS Cancellations Charges:
In the System Setup section select Action Trigger Setup.
In the Results section select Add.
Select a Rule Category of Service Event.
Select a Action Trigger type of Service Event Status.
Enter a Rule Name (such as NDIS Service Event Cancellation).
Select the applicable Event Status/s (No Show and Late Cn; Billed As NoShow).
In the Criteria section select Add.
If your agency has NDIS and non-NDIS clients you may want to define Criteria that reduces the number of Action Triggers that trigger for non-NDIS clients. Which criteria will achieve the best results for your agency will depend on how you have configured Penelope.
Possible options:
1. If there are Services that you only provide to non-NDIS customers then you could add a Criteria that excludes those Services e.g. use a non-NDIS Service Class as your Criteria.
2. Another approach would be to configure a user defined* checkbox on Service Events that Workers check ‘on’ to indicate the Service Event is for an NDIS client. There is a risk with this approach that workers might forget to check the box consistently.
3. Another option would be to create an NDIS Event Type and use a Criteria based on that.
In the Action > What Action to Take section click Edit and complete as required.
Either an Alert or General Workflow are probably the best options here.
1. Alerts allow you to send the notification to a Worker Category (e.g. you could define a Worker Category for the Finance Department) in addition to Workers assigned to the Service Event or Service File. It should be noted that Alerts do not display amongst a users tasks.
2. General Workflows allow you to submit to the Worker Category, Primary Worker, All Service File Workers, All Attending Workers and/or their Supervisor. However it will only be assigned to a Primary Worker or Supervisor.
In the Action > Who Receives the Action section click Edit and complete as required.
Click Enable once all sections are completed.
Instructions on building an Action Trigger can be found here.
Tracking Cancellation Charges in Penelope
To capture the current amount of Cancellation Fees that have been charged to the client during the policy period you could use one of the user defined* text fields available at the Individual Profile.
The Worker who receives the Action Trigger mentioned above can check the Individual Profile to determine if the client has reached the maximum allowed charges; if charges are still allowed they can update the value accordingly. You will need to ensure this value gets reset when the current Policy period expires.
You can create an Action Trigger that triggers when a Policy is about to expire (Rule Category = “Policy and Coverage”; Action Trigger = The Appropriate Time Based – By Day option) to remind the appropriate Workers to reset the number of Cancellation Fees charged back to zero.
*If no user defined fields are available a Document could be used.