DISABILITY SERVICES

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:34): Whilst I am on my feet, I have a response to a question I took on notice earlier, asked by the Hon. Mr Wade, and I will give a brief summary now of the response that I shall give him. The individual support service program manages approximately 4,000 contracts per annum which deliver personal support services to people with disabilities. A new purchasing system to manage contracts issued under the individual support program has been introduced to ensure that funding systems will be flexible enough to support clients who in the future may choose to manage their own funding.

The system came into effect from 1 July 2012, I am advised, and the system is internet based and allows service providers to directly view the contracts that Disability SA has raised with those providers. The initial focus has been to ensure that all contracts are properly loaded onto the system so that service providers are clear about the contracted levels of service delivery. The new system also allows service providers to acquit the services they have delivered by uploading data directly to the system.

Direct invoicing remains an option for providers but it is the intention to transition all providers to a more automated method of acquittal and payment as soon as possible. I understand that there have been some delays in processing time for invoices during this transition from the old system and the finalisation of the arrangements for 2011 and 2012. My advice is that the department will continue to work with providers to ensure that payments are prioritised and processed as quickly as possible. We have put in place training for a number of providers who provide a large number of these services. As I understand it, it has been scheduled for the coming weeks to progress the move towards automated billing and payment processes.

If there are instances where our NGO sector who are contracted to us are having difficulties with the new system, we will go in and put in place assistance to them so that they may be able to transition over to the new more automated system using the 'interweb thing'. Most people in this place understand and hopefully I will never have to use it myself.

I am also advised that the automatic acquittal of services is being delivered successfully and is being operated by at least two major providers to a very high level of success. The turnaround for releasing payments can be as little as 48 hours from the time the data is uploaded to the provider, I am advised. There are things, however, called reject items where services fall outside a contract period, and they are referred back to providers for further assessment and acquittal.

I understand that Disability SA is rolling out the automated acquittal process to the next group of major service providers. Disability SA will focus on developing the business processes of organisations to accommodate this new method of seeking payment for services. We understand that a number of larger providers, such as those—I will not mention the name—

The Hon. G.E. Gago: Oh, go on.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: I've got a supplementary and he comes and answers another question in the middle of it. Where's the order in the house?

The PRESIDENT: Order! Well, I was going to ask you if you had a supplementary at the end of his answer, but I don't think I'll bother now that time's run out, because you jumped the gun.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I would have been finished by now without the interjections, of course.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Hon. Mr Wade asked the question: I would have thought he would be very keen to hear me answer it the same day that he asked it, but of course he has no interest in hearing the answers to the questions without notice. He just wants to ask the question and go out to the media and trash the government. Unfortunately for him, he does not have any basis for doing that.