The Online Technical Support (OTS) Software Vendor Technical Support (SVTS) team is aware of an issue that Australian Unity Health (AUH) has reported to Services Australia in relation to transmissions from sending locations that contain the Patient alsoKnownAs data elements.

The alsoKnownAs data elements (givenName and familyName) were developed for when a Patient’s name differs between the Medicare registration for a patient and what the nominated Health Fund has registered for the Patient’s name (e.g. Medicare = William, Fund = Bill).

A review of effected traffic has shown in most cases the name being set within the Patient identity data elements is identical to be data being supplied in the alsoKnownAs data elements.

In these cases, the alsoKnownAs data elements should not be set as Patient name details for Medicare and Health Fund are the same.

In cases where the Patient name does differ between Medicare and Health Fund, those transmissions will need to wait until AUH support has corrected the issue before they can be submitted for processing.

AUH support is working on correcting the cause behind the AUH system rejecting transmissions where alsoKnownAs data is supplied, however, the SVTS team has yet to be supplied an ETA for resolution from AUH Support.

It is the recommendation of the SVTS team, for the interim when transmitting ECLIPSE transmissions or a Patient verification for AUH members, that the alsoKnownAs data elements are not supplied as it will result in the transmission being rejected by AUH.

It is also recommended that alsoKnownAs data elements not be supplied when the details do not differ between Medicare and Health Fund, as the data is not required unless there is a difference in names.