Rest homes reject DHB demand for birth details

Photo / The Daily Post

Rest homes are refusing to comply with a "nonsensical" demand to find old people's birth certificates to prove they are New Zealanders eligible for taxpayer-financed care subsidies.

The Auckland District Health Board has written to the city's more than 60 rest homes and hospitals for the elderly, asking for copies of subsidised clients' birth certificates or passports - "or we are obliged to invoice the patient for treatment received".

"Any name changes require additional data; ie, marriage certificate, deed poll name change, sworn JP statements," says the letter from the board's patient eligibility supervisor to one rest home, dated last Tuesday.

It says providers claiming a subsidy for residents are required to have seen their birth certificate or passport.

The Government pays providers about $900 million a year for aged residential care - about three-quarters of it in means-tested subsidies and the rest through people's superannuation.

The Auckland DHB has been tightening up on eligibility, with a policy that now requires all new patients, except those seeking care for accidental injury covered by ACC, to supply a copy of their birth certificate or other proof. Patients needing acute care are treated first and asked later for proof of eligibility, and payment if they are ineligible.

Aged Care Association chief executive Martin Taylor said yesterday the new demand from the DHB to his members introduced an excessive amount of red tape and would be difficult for providers to implement.

"It's nonsensical ... we're not going to start asking 90-year-old people to start producing birth certificates and passports."

As far as Mr Taylor was aware, Auckland was the only DHB demanding that providers supply the information.

They were "incredulous" and had refused to comply.

The board's general manager of planning and funding, Denis Jury, said through a spokesman, "We have always been concerned about use of services by those not eligible."

The Ministry of Health's funding manager, John Hazeldine, said: "The cost to Government of the fully subsidised person is around $32,000 a year, so it seems prudent to ensure they are eligible for that service."

But Mr Taylor said he had legal advice that it was doubtful whether providers could be made to comply with the DHB demand.

He said a simpler approach would be to look for any clients receiving the care subsidy but not national superannuation, since eligibility was checked before granting the pension.

The association's Auckland branch chairwoman, Ann Coughlan, who is the chief executive of Mercy Parklands, a hospital and rest home in Ellerslie, said it would be onerous to have to ask for birth certificates.

She said subsidised clients' eligibility was already checked by Work and Income New Zealand, and by the DHB agency that assessed their need for residential care.