The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) Webclaim service is turning the slower manual claiming process its head, changing the usual wait times for payments from 20 days plus to within two business days.
The secure end-to-end paperless channel is available to users with a Provider Digital Access (PRODA) account who access the Department of Human Services (DHS) Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) portal.
If you are treating patients under the DVA scheme, which is available to veterans holding a gold or white card with the department, you can register for the service which takes about 30 minutes and requires three forms of ID. (If you're operating in a group clinic, you can nominate an administrative delegate to lodge claims on your behalf.)
Features and benefits of using DVA Webclaim include:
- Receive an instant response to verify if your claim is successful
- Submit up to 14 services on the same voucher for each client
- Access two years of your DVA claiming history, simplifying your tax preparation
- Cancel/amend paid claims submitted on the same day
- Change your banking details online
- Use HPOS secure messaging to ask DHS questions about your claims, and
- Claims are entirely paperless and patient signatures are not required.
One thing to note is that Webclaim is a stand-alone system and is not integrated with practice management software although DHS does offer a list of software vendors whose products offer Medicare Online Claiming programs that support DVA claiming.
A number of manual claim forms and voucher have now been discontinued due to the Webclaim initiative although manual claiming is still available to providers without an internet-connected computer.
