Policy regarding non-issue of Hearing Aids deemed clinically necessary.
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
I seek any and all documents held by DVA relating to the supply of Hearing Aids to Veterans with accepted hearing loss and other hearing conditions, in particular the Policy that allows DVA to refuse to supply Hearing Aids not listed in the Old Age Pensioners/Free to Client list, despite treating Audiologists/ENT Specialists stating that the Top-Up Hearing Aids are deemed clinically necessary.
I do not require any details of private individuals.
I DO require business details, including full names, email addresses and phone numbers to be supplied and these details are to be treated as "in scope".
Yours faithfully,
Felicity Wetsmou
Dear Secretary,
Department of Veterans' Affairs,
The response to my request has been delayed and not complied with.
By law, DVA should normally have responded promptly and by January 30, 2023.
Please attend to this FOI request ASAP.
Yours faithfully,
Felicity Wetsmou
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Veterans' Affair's handling of my FOI request 'Policy regarding non-issue of Hearing Aids deemed clinically necessary.'.
By Law, DVA should have responded promptly and by 30 January 2023. To date no response of any kind has been received from DVA. This includes no acknowledgment of receipt and then no acknowledgment of my follow up letter of 31 January 2023.
As this FOI has now been deemed refused due to the failures of DVA, I am formally requesting that DVA conduct an internal review of the Department of Veterans' Affair's handling of my FOI request.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...
Yours faithfully,
Felicity Wetsmou
Dear Ms Wetsmou
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (the department) has received an email
from you on 31 January 2023 about a request for access to information
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
A search of emails coming into the Information Access Unit at the end of
December 2022 has failed to find the email you indicated was sent on 31
December 2022. This is of concern to us as we take our obligation to
acknowledge and finalise requests within the legislated time seriously.
Would you please resend your original email to
[1][DVA request email] so we can see what information you would
like and so we can begin work on gathering that information? Your request
has been given the registration number LEX 55780.
We would also appreciate you sending us a copy of the acknowledgement
email you would have received from the Department when your original email
was sent. This will assist in our search to find why your email does not
appear to have been received in the Information Access inbox.
Your Address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address that we can send
notices to. You have advised your email address is
[2][FOI #9771 email]. Unless you tell us
otherwise, we will send all notices and correspondence to this address.
Disclosure log
Information released under the FOI Act may be published on a disclosure
log on our website, subject to certain exceptions. These exceptions
include where publication of personal, business, professional or
commercial information would be unreasonable.
Further assistance
If you have any questions about your request, please email
[3][DVA request email]. We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Fiona
Position Number – 62211034
Information Access Registrations Officer
Information Access Unit / Client Access and Rehabilitation Branch
Client Engagement and Support Services Division
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372)
[4][DVA request email]
[5]www.dva.gov.au
[6]cid:image002.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[7]cid:image003.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[8]cid:image004.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[9]cid:image005.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590
[10]cid:image008.jpg@01D8EA24.8F7FA8A0
[11]cid:image009.jpg@01D8EA24.8F7FA8A0
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DVA request email]
2. mailto:[FOI #9771 email]
3. mailto:[DVA request email]
4. mailto:[DVA request email]
5. http://www.dva.gov.au/
6. https://www.facebook.com/DVAAus
7. https://twitter.com/DVAAus
8. https://au.linkedin.com/company/australi...
9. https://www.youtube.com/DVATVAus
Dear INFORMATION.ACCESS,
Dear Sir/Madam,
I refer to your request and supply the following email logs for your information:-
Right-to-Know Delivery logs:
Dec 31 14:18:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/pickup[5594]: 004A03F84B: uid=1001 from=<foi+request-9771-[REDACTED]@righttoknow.org.au>
Dec 31 14:18:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/cleanup[12442]: 004A03F84B: message-id=<[email address]>
Dec 31 14:18:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/qmgr[1540]: 004A03F84B: from=<foi+request-9771-[REDACTED]@righttoknow.org.au>, size=2210, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Dec 31 14:18:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/smtp[12444]: 004A03F84B: to=<[email address]>, relay=mailin11.servicesaustralia.gov.au[161.146.192.9]:25, delay=0.42, delays=0.02/0.01/0.25/0.14, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 ok: Message 44109553 accepted)
Dec 31 14:18:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/qmgr[1540]: 004A03F84B: removed
Jan 31 18:37:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/pickup[26637]: 43C563FB25: uid=1001 from=<foi+request-9771-[REDACTED]@righttoknow.org.au>
Jan 31 18:37:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/cleanup[9193]: 43C563FB25: message-id=<[email address]>
Jan 31 18:37:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/qmgr[1543]: 43C563FB25: from=<foi+request-9771-[REDACTED]@righttoknow.org.au>, size=1575, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 31 18:37:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/smtp[9195]: 43C563FB25: to=<[email address]>, relay=mailin8.humanservices.gov.au[161.146.192.4]:25, delay=0.35, delays=0.02/0.01/0.24/0.08, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 ok: Message 36158383 accepted)
Jan 31 18:37:32 ip-172-31-43-31 postfix/qmgr[1543]: 43C563FB25: removed
This is the text of the application under the FOI Act dated 31 December 2022:-
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
I seek any and all documents held by DVA relating to the supply of Hearing Aids to Veterans with accepted hearing loss and other hearing conditions, in particular the Policy that allows DVA to refuse to supply Hearing Aids not listed in the Old Age Pensioners/Free to Client list, despite treating Audiologists/ENT Specialists stating that the Top-Up Hearing Aids are deemed clinically necessary.
I do not require any details of private individuals.
I DO require business details, including full names, email addresses and phone numbers to be supplied and these details are to be treated as "in scope".
Yours faithfully,
Felicity Wetsmou
This is the text of the letter to you dated 31 January 2023:-
Dear Secretary,
Department of Veterans' Affairs,
The response to my request has been delayed and not complied with.
By law, DVA should normally have responded promptly and by January 30, 2023.
Please attend to this FOI request ASAP.
Yours faithfully,
Felicity Wetsmou
It seems that you received the letter dated today, so I won't duplicate it.
Yours sincerely,
Felicity Wetsmou
Dear Ms Wetsmou,
Please find attached the decision letter for LEX 55780.
Kind regards,
Suzanne| Information Access Officer
Position 62210871
Information Access Unit I Client Access and Rehabilitation Branch
Client Engagement and Support Services Division
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Tel 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372)
[1][DVA request email]
[2]www.dva.gov.au
[3]cid:image002.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[4]cid:image003.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[5]cid:image004.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[6]cid:image005.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590
[7]cid:image005.jpg@01D8E9E7.0F9C7A60
[8]cid:image012.jpg@01D8E9E7.0F9C7A60
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DVA request email]
2. http://www.dva.gov.au/
3. https://www.facebook.com/DVAAus
4. https://twitter.com/DVAAus
5. https://au.linkedin.com/company/australi...
6. https://www.youtube.com/DVATVAus