Providing medical documents
Individuals may be able to access their super early on compassionate grounds for certain expenses, where they meet the relevant eligibility criteria.
When applying, individuals need to provide documents to support their eligibility, including medical reports and quotes or invoices from registered health practitioners.
The grounds that require medical documents to be provided are:
- medical treatment for the individual or their dependant
- medical transport for the individual or their dependant
- modifications to the individual's home or vehicle to accommodate their or their dependant's special needs arising from a severe disability
- palliative care for the individual or their dependant.
Accessing super early can have significant long-term financial impacts and should be a last resort for your patient.
Medical report requirements
Health practitioners play a critical role in assisting their patient to apply for early release of their super on compassionate grounds.
ATO staff rely on information provided by health practitioners when assessing applications. Therefore it is important to ensure the information provided in medical reports is complete, true and correct.
There is no requirement for a health practitioner to provide a medical report for a patient. When deciding whether to prepare a medical report, health practitioners should consider the accuracy of the diagnosis and whether the proposed treatment is the necessary treatment to address an eligible medical condition. We expect any practitioners preparing a report to be appropriately trained and qualified to express an opinion on the patient's condition and the efficacy of the proposed treatment in treating the condition. This includes where you are preparing a report and are not the treating practitioner.
Consultations with patients for the purposes of providing a medical report must be fulsome enough to ensure sufficient information is gathered. Inaccurate or incomplete information provided in a medical report may result in significant penalties as a result of making a false or misleading statement.
We prefer you to complete our medical report form rather than providing your own report. This:
- helps ensure you provide all the information required to assess the application in the first instance
- minimises the chance of your patient's application being delayed or declined.
If you choose to provide your own report, you need to ensure you provide all the information required by our template.
When completing the medical report and providing quotes/invoices, you need to ensure:
- you have had the required level of consultation with your patient before preparing the medical report
- the treatments and costs in quotes or invoices you issue are restricted to what is medically required for your patient's circumstances
- your quotes and invoices don't include any fees or charges unrelated to the treatment, including fees of registered agents and other third parties.
Behaviours of concern
We are aware of various concerning reports regarding the conduct of health practitioners who support individuals to access their super on compassionate grounds.
We are working with other regulators including Australian health practitioner regulation agency (Ahpra) to examine these reports further and consider any necessary actions.
A joint statementExternal Link made by Ahpra and the Dental and Medical Boards of Australia has expressed concerns about reports of financial harm to patients and may be placing profits ahead of patient care.
Examples of behaviour the ATO considers inappropriate or that are illegal:
- Preparing inaccurate medical reports to support patients access their super where they are ineligible (for example, for cosmetic purposes).
- Preparing medical reports where a fulsome consultation or examination has not occurred, such as
- by telehealth when a physical, in-person examination is required to provide a full and accurate assessment of the patient's condition, or
- on the basis of a report from another practitioner where you haven't conducted your own proper consultation or examination.
- Recommending more expensive treatment options, where cheaper alternatives are available.
- Influencing or advising patients to access their super early without an Australian financial services licenceExternal Link. This is likely providing financial product advice, and if you are unlicensed, can result in severe penalties and other regulatory action by ASIC.
- Requesting, collecting or storing patient myGov details to submit applications. This is a breach of the myGov terms of useExternal Link and compromises the security of your patients' myGov account and personal information. It may result in their myGov account being locked, suspended or deactivated permanently.
Charging or receiving a fee or other reward to assist patients prepare or submit their application where you aren't registered with the TPBExternal Link. This can result in significant penalties from the TPB.
We are aware of reports of people being coached on how to present their condition as eligible and requiring treatment in order to obtain a medical report from a health practitioner. We advise health practitioners to be aware of this possibility when undertaking their examination and diagnosis, particularly where the patient has been referred by a practitioner or other third party who might benefit from the patient making an application to access their super early.
How to report concerns
We encourage health practitioners to make a tip-off if they are aware of and have concerns about:
- individuals who have inappropriately accessed their super, or
- health practitioners or registered agents that have assisted individuals to inappropriately access their super.
We review all tip-offs for early access to super and take action where necessary.
We also encourage anyone with concerns about:
- a specific medical practitioner to report this to the relevant health regulatorExternal Link
- others providing unlicensed advice to report this to the relevant financial regulatorExternal Link.