Following reports earlier this month that dentists were not able to claim under the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Dental Schedule for services provided by dental hygienists to persons eligible under the DVA Scheme, the ADA has met with the DVA officers and the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Mr Warren Snowdon. The Department has devised an interim arrangement to ensure that services provided by dental hygienists under the direction of a dentist or dental specialist can continue for veteran patients and be legitimately claimed under DVA’s current schedule arrangements.
The Department’s solution overcomes the logjam that would be caused by funding for preventive dental services being restricted to dentists and dental specialists, according to the ADA. The Department has advised ADA that this “is an interim arrangement only while DVA considers the issue of access to services provided by dental hygienists. DVA will consult with the ADA in considering ongoing arrangements and will be in touch in coming weeks to progress this further”.
The Minister, Department and ADA all recognised the value to veterans in having dental hygienists provide services under the Scheme. All were keen to remedy the situation as promptly as possible.
A Departmental notification has been released, which reads:
Under DVA’s long‐standing arrangements, funding of preventive dental services is limited to those services provided by dentists and dental specialists. To address this issue, I wish to confirm that under subsection 84(3) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 and subsection 287(2) of Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004, the Repatriation Commission and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission determined that services provided by dental hygienists under the direction of a dentist or dental specialist can continue for veteran patients and be legitimately claimed under DVA’s current schedule arrangements.
In response to this arrangement, your members are encouraged to resume providing such services to members of the veteran community and I appreciate your support in communicating this to your members.
The ADA says this notification provides a solution to the problem. The ADA and the Department are keen to point out it applies only to the DVA scheme and not the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme.
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It’s a shame that Bite magazine can only give part of the story as this issue is far from resolved. The Australian Dental and Oral Health Therapists’ Association had also been advocating for the notification to include dental therapists and oral health therapists as these professionals have also provided services for DVA patients for many years. The DVA has advised ADOHTA that the ADA need to notify them that dental therapists and oral health therapists should be included however in the meantime any DT or OHT providing services for DVA patients must bill the patient directly not the DVA or risk operating illegally and breaching their PII cover and that of their employing dentist.
The sooner this issue is resolved the sooner DVA patients can receive the care they need from the professional of their choice without being financially disadvantaged.