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Claiming travel in DVA claims
Claiming travel in DVA claims

How to claim reimbursements for travel, including OT80

Nick avatar
Written by Nick
Updated over a year ago

Claiming travel as part of a DVA service

Claiming reimbursements for travel can be completed via Tyro Health Online when a kilometre allowance is available to providers for certain item codes (e.g. OT20). To claim travel, the following additional steps are required.

Set treatment location in provider details

Raise a DVA claim as per normal, then when you get to the 'provider details' section, click "show advanced options" to reveal the 'treatment location' field and set this to where the service was provided.

Claim travel for service items

Then, in the 'service items' section, after entering the item code, click "show advanced options":

  • Select "YES" under 'are you claiming travel as part of this service?

  • Enter the distance travelled (must be 11kms or more).

  • The expected travel reimbursement will be calculated as per the DVA's Occupational Therapists schedule of fees.

DVA claims including OT80 or reimbursement for distance travelled cannot be saved as drafts or duplicated after submission.

Once submitted, the invoice in Tyro Health Online will show a second line item for "KM" to claim the distance travelled. The total amount for the claim may be different to the payment outstanding amount shown because the reimbursement for travel is added to the payment outstanding amount and isn’t part of the item fee amounts that add up to the total.

OT80 for Remote Allowance (Travel)

For Occupational Therapists (OT), a remote area allowance (RAA) may be paid in addition to the normal kilometre allowance when an OT is required to travel in excess of a 50 kilometre radius from their normal place of business.

An additional OT80 item code per "trip" must be added via a seperate item code entry as part of the claim including the service provided, i.e. if you visit the veteran and return to your rooms, then one OT80 entry is required for the forward journey and another for the return journey.

OT80 entries must immediately follow the associated service item. For example, the service items must be entered in the following order: "OT20 - OT80 - OT01", not "OT20 - OT01 - OT80".

When adding an OT80 entry, after the relevant service item, follow the same steps as above, and:

  • Enter "Site to Client trip" or "Client to Site trip" in the 'service text' field.

  • The distance travelled must be 51kms or more (the expected travel reimbursement will be calculated as per the DVA's Occupational Therapists schedule of fees, specific to OT80).

  • For a return journey, the 'duplicate service override' field (under 'advanced options') must be set to "not a duplicate".

Example 1

A veteran resides 70km from your usual place of business and you visit the veteran - to provide an aids assessment, e.g. OT20 - and return to your rooms.

  1. Raise your claim for this veteran as normal, e.g. enter the OT20 item code under 'service items' and include the total number of kilometres travelled (140kms) as the 'distance travelled' to claim the normal kilometre allowance for this trip.

  2. Add the first OT80 service item for the forward journey (“Site to Client trip”), set distance travelled as 70kms.

  3. Add a second OT80 service item for the return journey (“Client to Site trip”), set distance travelled as 105kms and set override for duplicate service to “not a duplicate".

The RAA is payable for 40kms with respect to this veteran - this is the distance travelled in excess of 50 kilometres on each leg of the journey.

Example 2

A veteran (A) resides 40kms from your usual place of business and you visit the veteran to provide an aids assessment, e.g. OT20. You then travel to another veteran (B) who is 60kms from 'veteran A' and return to your rooms (105kms return journey). In this example, two claims must be raised (one per veteran).

  1. Raise the claims for each veteran as normal, e.g. enter the OT20 item code under 'service items' and include the total number of kilometres travelled (40kms for 'veteran A' and 165kms for 'veteran B') as the 'distance travelled' to claim the normal kilometre allowance for this trip.

  2. For 'veteran B' only (RAA is not payable with respect to your visit to 'veteran A'), add the two OT80 service items for:

    1. 'veteran A' to 'veteran B' (“Site to Client trip”, 60kms), an

    2. the return journey to your rooms (“Client to Site trip”, 105kms, set override for duplicate service to “not a duplicate").

For 'veteran B', RAA will be paid to you for 10km (60km less first 50km) of your journey to their residence from 'veteran A', and 55km (105km less first 50km) of your return journey to your rooms.

If you have any questions, click on the pink chat bubble on our website or email our Customer Support team.

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