Issue 5 - Customer Service Institute of Australia

Our WorkWe were established as a Commonwealth statutoryauthority in 1974 to administer what has becomeAustralia’s universal health insurance scheme,Medicare. However, we have grown over the yearsto administer a wide range of other health-relatedprograms on behalf of the Australian Government.Our key programs are: Medicare Pharmaceutical Benefi ts Scheme (andRepatriation Pharmaceutical Benefi ts Scheme) Australian Organ Donor Register Australian Childhood Immunisation Register.We also administer a range of programs relating togeneral practice, including the Medical IndemnityScheme, the General Practice ImmunisationIncentives Scheme, the Practice IncentivesProgram, the Rural Retention Program, and theGeneral Practice Registrars’ Rural IncentivePayments Scheme.We administer community rebate andreimbursement schemes, such as the HigherEducation Contribution Scheme (HECS)Reimbursement Scheme and the 30% PrivateHealth Insurance Rebate. We facilitate paymentsthrough the Family Assistance Offi ce in partnershipwith Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Offi ce andthe Department of Family and Community Services(FaCS). We also administer the CompensationRecovery Program for Medicare and nursing homebenefi ts, as well as the Balimed scheme for victimsof the Bali bombings in October 2002.We arrange claims processing and payments forthe Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) (veterans’treatment accounts), the Offi ce of Hearing Services,the Health Department of Western Australia, andthe Vietnam Veterans’ Children’s Program.Our purpose of ‘improvingAustralia’s health through paymentsand information’ was developedin consultation with customers,stakeholders and staff.Our PurposeOur purpose of ‘improving Australia’s health throughpayments and information’ was developed inconsultation with customers, stakeholders and staff.Our aim is to make our services and informationmore accessible to those who need them, and tomake our services as effi cient and streamlinedas possible. Our customers can do business withus face to face in a Medicare Offi ce, via phone,internet and post. Each year we have oversixty million visits to our 231 Medicare Offi ces andover eleven and a half million calls on our varioustelephone lines.One of our 6 key strategic themes is “the deliveryof excellent customer service”. We are currentlyformalising HIC’s customer service model, andrecently completed an audit against the InternationalCustomer Service Standard. We are reviewing ourCharter of Care and establishing a learning frameworkfor our Customer Service Offi cers.Customer SatisfactionConsistent with our core value of becomingever more focused on being a customer drivenorganisation, and our commitment to continuousimprovement, we conduct an annual customersatisfaction research program. This comprehensiveprogram is conducted with health practitioners,their practice managers, health consumers,and pharmacists is designed to monitor theperformance of key aspects of our service delivery.Research conducted by AC Nielsen in 2004shows that our customers and stakeholders haveconfi dence in our provision of services and ourcommitment to relationship-building and opencommunication.Of those medical practitioners surveyed nationally,79% were satisfi ed with our administration ofservices. This is 4% more than the 2003 score of75%. Among General Practice staff, satisfaction withour administration of services continued to increase.There were signifi cantly more staff in 2004 (90%)satisfi ed with our administration of services than in2003 (85%). Pharmacist satisfaction has remainedrelatively stable since 1998, with nine out of 10stating they were satisfi ed with our administrationof services. Our results among consumers in 2004were the same as for 2003, with 93% of consumerssatisfi ed with our administration of services. Thisrate has now remained stable for four years.