Kosten durch fehlerhafte oder unvollständige Transportdokumentation

Definition

Guidance for patient transport in NSW and Victoria specifies that non‑emergency patient transport must be **requested by a medical practitioner** and that patients must be clinically stable but still require patient transport services, with documentation of this assessment.[1][5] Victorian guidelines further limit authorisation of clinically necessary transport to specified health professionals and tie concession coverage to correct classification and authorisation at booking.[1] Where shuttle or special‑needs transport is being used in a quasi‑clinical context (e.g. taking patients between facilities or to public clinics), hospitals and funding schemes often require proof that the trip met criteria for non‑emergency patient transport and that it was booked by authorised staff. If operators submit invoices without the correct authorisation forms, without clear indication of clinical necessity, or with mismatched trip details (date, origin, destination, patient identifiers), hospitals or schemes may refuse payment and insist on corrected claims or absorb the cost only after extensive negotiation. LOGIC: If 2–4% of trips each month (for a 400‑trip/month operator) suffer from documentation errors that permanently prevent payment at an average tariff of AUD 280, the operator loses 8–16 trips x AUD 280 = AUD 2,240–4,480 per month (AUD 26,880–53,760 p.a.). Additional soft costs arise when staff must re‑contact clinicians to retrospectively obtain authorisation or re‑enter data into billing systems.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: In Australia’s 🇦🇺 health transport market, operators routinely lose AUD 15,000–40,000 p.a. in write‑offs and rework because trips are not documented to the standard required by hospitals and state schemes. Digital workflows that capture authorisations and clinical criteria at booking sharply reduce these quality costs.

Affected Stakeholders

Transport dispatchers, Hospital ward clerks and discharge planners, Treating clinicians authorising transport, Billing and coding staff, NDIS provider administrators

Related Business Risks