General Terms of Business
Caswell Health Care agrees to provide you the support services as agreed in the Schedule of Supports. This document outlines the schedule of rates, the agreed therapy budget and how that budget will be allocated in order to achieve your therapy goals.
In addition to the Schedule of Supports, please note the following:
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Initial Assessment
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Conducted in-rooms unless otherwise agreed
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Requires 48 hours’ notice of cancellation
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Requires credit card details / confirmed funding availability for appointment to be confirmed.
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Initial Assessment Report
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Typically, this is in addition to the initial assessment, and is a summary of the findings of the assessment, including any standardised assessments. The report can take two – four weeks to produce.
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Standardised Assessment Forms
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These are third party standardised clinical assessment forms which help us in our assessment and recommendations. These may be used at the commencement of and at any stage throughout your therapy, and your consent will be gained on each occasion.
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Ongoing therapy
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Our appointments include time when we are completing therapy and time when we are communicating next steps and recording clinical progress notes.
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We prefer to see you in rooms but are also able to visit you in your home, in the community or at school. For these we typically need to be in the area and will charge for travel time (up to an agreed maximum).
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Appointments for a therapy plan are considered confirmed for a calendar quarter for adult clients and for a school term for our paediatric clients. Therapy (individual or group) during gazetted holiday periods should be discussed with your therapist. Your next quarter / term of appointments will be re-confirmed in the month prior. It may sometimes be necessary to adjust times due to the availability of staff. These changes will be discussed with you if/when they occur.
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Liaison Time / Session Planning / Making Resources
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Achieving your therapy goals often involves more than just face to face therapy. Depending on your circumstances, we may need to reserve time for liaison with equipment suppliers, other professionals involved in your care, development of resources and home programmes etc.
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Report Writing / Assistive Technology Applications
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Reports may be required at various times for numerous reasons including – referral to other health services, funding body requirements etc.
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A typical report turnaround time is three weeks, with a minimum of two weeks.
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We tend not to do short-form reports for most of our clients (especially those funded through government agencies) as our experience is that it results in sub-optimal outcomes and costs that can be avoided.
The Schedule of Supports is a commitment which can be cancelled in accordance with this agreement.
Payment Obligations
The rates we charge are detailed on the separate Schedule of Supports document. We will seek payment for the provision of these supports on delivery of the service. Where applicable, GST will be charged as required by law.
PLEASE NOTE: You as the client/client representative are responsible for arrangement of payment of fees and if Caswell Healthcare for any reason is unable to recover payment from your funding body within a reasonable time, we will seek to recover our fees directly from you.
Cancellation Policy
Please refer our Cancellation Policy Page
Key Rights and Responsibilities
Clients and their representatives
Key Rights:
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to be treated with courtesy, respect and dignity
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to receive the best and most appropriate service and advice in relation to achievement of agreed goals
Key Responsibilities:
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Provide accurate and complete information
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Ensure that there are appropriate funds available for services.
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Ensure they communicate to the provider any changes to funding availability prior to the service being performed.
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Give the Provider a minimum of 1 business day notice if they cannot make a scheduled appointment.
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Give the Provider the required notice if they need to end the Service Agreement
The client / client’s representative agrees to:
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Inform the Provider about how they wish the supports to be delivered to meet the client’s needs
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Inform the therapist if they are receiving therapy supports from third parties in order that we may align our interventions strategies
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Provide a safe and smoke-free environment for our therapist to work in if seen at home, and use equipment safely – in the way they have practiced with the therapist
Caswell Health Care
Key Rights:
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to be treated with courtesy, respect and dignity
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to perform our services in a safe and clean (smoke-free) environment
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to be paid on performance of service
Key Responsibilities:
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To act in the best interests, to the best of our practical ability of the client
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Communicate openly and honestly and consult the client on decisions about how supports are provided
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Protect the client’s privacy and confidential information
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Listen to feedback and resolve problems quickly
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Give the client as much notice as possible if the Provider must change a scheduled appointment
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Provide supports in a manner consistent with relevant laws and good industry practice
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Keep accurate records
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Give the client the required notice if the Provider needs to end the Service Agreement (see ‘Ending this Service Agreement’ below for more information)
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To inform the client of any potential conflicts of interest, to ensure the client can make an informed choice.
Privacy Policy
Protecting your privacy
This Privacy Policy applies to the services offered by Caswell Health Care (the company). We are committed to protecting your privacy and to complying with the National Privacy Principles. This policy sets out Caswell Health Care’s information handling practices and procedures which aim to comply with the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 and related Amendments (the Privacy Act). The NPPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your personal and sensitive information.
What personal information do we collect and why do we need it?
We collect information primarily to enable us to effectively deliver services to our clients. As therapists, we need to collect certain personal and sensitive information such as contact details and health-related information to assess your health needs and to facilitate the development of treatment plans and the implementation of care. 'Personal information' means information we hold about you from which your identity is either clear or can be reasonably determined. ‘Sensitive information’ is a particular type of personal information - such as health, race or religious information.
When we collect personal and sensitive information we will, wherever possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it. We may also use this information to send you details of other services or resources that may be of interest to you. At any time, if you no longer wish to receive this additional information you can simply ‘Unsubscribe’.
We also collect credit card and banking information and take care to ensure this information is not shared outside our business other than for processing your payment or paying your accounts. We will only use the information we collect for the purposes we state.
How and when do we collect the personal information?
We collect the information in person, at interviews and meetings, in correspondence, via email, by telephone, through our website and from third parties. Wherever practicable, we will ask you for the information. However, we may need to contact others such as your referring agency and others involved with your health care
How do we keep your personal information?
Client information is generally kept electronically in an individual client record in a secure system located in the secure online server and on local servers. In some instances, paper records exist, and these are securely stored on site. All client information is destroyed according to legislative requirements.
Use of your personal information
The personal information you supply to CHC is collected for use in connection with conducting our business. Other than for our own business purposes, CHC will not disclose your personal information to third parties outside of CHC, other than for a purpose made known to you and to which you have consented, or unless required by law. We don't disclose sensitive information about you unless you agree or would reasonably expect us to.
Who will see or have access to your personal information?
Unless we are required to provide your personal information to others by law, by court order or to investigate suspected fraud or other unlawful activity, your information will generally only be seen or used by persons working in or for the company on a need to know basis. These people will include our own and our contracted staff. We may employ other companies, agents, contractors or third-party service providers to assist us in providing our services, including (but not limited to) administrative, postal, telecommunications, computer, database storage, and development services, consulting or other services. These third parties may have access to personal information that is needed to perform their specific function. They are not permitted to use that information for other purposes and are under duties to the company to keep such information confidential and secure. We recognise the trust with which individuals provide personal information, and such information will not be used or disclosed for any other purposes without consent, except in exceptional cases when disclosure may be required by law or is necessary to protect the rights or property of the company, or any member of the public, or to lessen a serious threat to a person's health or safety. Some of our information could be stored in servers, cloud services, or other types of networked or electronic storage that could possibly be located overseas.
Quality of your personal information
It is an important part of providing our services to you that your personal information is up to date. We take reasonable steps to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete, relevant, up-to-date and not misleading. There are procedures in place which facilitate amendments and verification of personal information. If you think that your personal information may require changing or updating, please contact us. It is important that you advise us at the earliest opportunity of any changes to your personal information so that our records can be updated. We will then take all reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up-to-date.
What if I want to check what personal information you hold about me?
You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If at any time you want to know exactly what personal information we hold about you, you can access your record by contacting us. There may be some cost to you in providing this information if your request is complex or requires detailed searching of our records. In order to protect your personal information, we will require identification from you before releasing such information.
How to make a privacy complaint
If a person has a complaint regarding the way in which their personal information is being handled, in the first instance they should contact us through the feedback procedure outlined earlier in this agreement and on our website. We will respond to your complaint as soon as practicable and within 7 days. If the parties are unable to reach a satisfactory solution through negotiation, the person may wish to request an independent person to investigate the complaint such as the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner.