ACC18 form and changed and added diagnosis
Lee M. made this Official Information request to Minister for ACC
Response to this request is long overdue. By law Minister for ACC should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.
From: Lee M.
Dear Minister for ACC,
An ACC18 form is apparently used to change or add a diagnosis. If I am not correct in this thinking please correct me.
I am requesting the following under the Official Information Act:
1) Copies of all policies, procedures, guidelines or rules related to the ACC18 form and its completion and lodgement process.
2) Any information that would apply in a situation where a provisional diagnosis entered on an ACC45 claim form is subsequently changed on an ACC18 form by deletion of the provisional diagnosis and addition of the new, definitive diagnosis, and the effect that this change and addition would have on a claim where cover had earlier been accepted on the basis of the provisional diagnosis (the accident event regarding both diagnoses being exactly the same).
Yours faithfully,
Lee M.
From: N Kaye
Minister for ACC
Thank you for contacting the office of Hon Nikki Kaye. The Minister
receives a high volume of correspondence and will respond to you as soon
as possible.
Thank you once again for your message,
Kind regards,
Office of Hon Nikki Kaye
T: 04 817 6837
[1][Minister for ACC request email]
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1. mailto:[Minister for ACC request email]
From: Rutger Keijser
Minister for ACC
Dear Ms M,
Please find attached a letter in response to your request under the
Official information Act dated 15 July 2016.
I apologise for the late response to your request.
Kind regards
Rutger Keijser | ACC Private Secretary | Office of Hon Nikki Kaye
4.5L Executive Wing, Parliament Buildings, Private Bag 18041,
Wellington 6160, New Zealand
T: 04 817 8346 | M: 021 521 858 | [email address]
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From: Lee M.
Dear Rutger Keijser,
It is not fair or acceptable to sit on an information request for a month and then reply saying you are transferring my request. No explanation for the delay either. I have complained to the Ombudsman today.
Yours sincerely,
Lee M.
From: Government Services
A response to this request has been sent to you directly. Please note that
if you believe the information provided is in the public interest, you are
free to post it on fyi.org.nz at your own discretion.
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
From: Lee M.
Dear Government Services,
The intention and purpose of the FYI website is that members of the public may access and read responses to Official Information Act requests. You have defeated both in claiming that: "A response to this request has been sent to you directly. Please note that if you believe the information provided is in the public interest, you are free to post it on fyi.org.nz at your own discretion."
I want to know how you ascertained my identity when neither my first name nor my surname are published at the FYI website? I also want to know how you ascertained what address to post the requested information to when not only my first name and my surname, but also my private home address, were provided to FYI in the strictest of confidence, I know they have not disclosed this information to you, and I have also never disclosed my personal information to you or any other respondent through the FYI website? In addition, I want to know why I have been discriminated against by the ACC in terms of how differently you have responded to my FYI information requests compared to other FYI information requests?
I naturally consider that you have 'thumbed your nose' at my right to privacy and anonymity, and draw to your attention that Section 16 of the Official Information Act provides;
"(1A)
Subject to subsections (2) and (3), information made available in any of the ways listed under subsection (1) may be made available in electronic form or by electronic means.
(2)
Subject to section 17, the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation shall make the information available in the way preferred by the person requesting it unless to do so would—
(a)
impair efficient administration; or
(b)
be contrary to any legal duty of the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation in respect of the document; or
(c)
prejudice the interests protected by section 6 or section 7 or section 9 and (in the case of the interests protected by section 9) there is no countervailing public interest".
Patently obviously my preferred way of you making the requested information available to me was via the FYI website. Had this not been the case I would have made my information request by e-mail or by letter directly to the ACC.
I wish it to be noted that I have not received anything in the post at my private home address from ACC or its Government Services at date. In any event a response by post is not my preferred way of you making the information available to me and I now require you to publish your response at the FYI website.
Lastly, I do not have my "own discretion" to publish your response at the FYI website. Of course you know this. I am also not willing or prepared to go through the hassle of having to write to FYI to ask them to do this when you ought to have responded to my FYI information request at the FYI website and not by post to my private home address. And I am certain that FYI - which operates on a shoestring budget of public donations - would not be happy needing to scan and publish your response either.
This matter is being raised with the Ombudsman as a formal complaint and has also been cc'd to FYI management.
Yours sincerely,
Lee M.
From: Government Services
Dear Lee M,
In order to maintain the efficient administration of ACC, all responses to you will be provided as per your updated communication plan and not in the way preferred by you. This decision is in line with section 16(2)(a) of the Act.
Yours sincerely,
Government Services
-----Original Message-----
From: Lee M. [mailto:[FOI #4258 email]]
Sent: Saturday, 22 October 2016 1:32 a.m.
To: Government Services
Subject: Re: Your request under the Official Information Act 1982 regarding the ACC18 form
Dear Government Services,
The intention and purpose of the FYI website is that members of the public may access and read responses to Official Information Act requests. You have defeated both in claiming that: "A response to this request has been sent to you directly. Please note that if you believe the information provided is in the public interest, you are free to post it on fyi.org.nz at your own discretion."
I want to know how you ascertained my identity when neither my first name nor my surname are published at the FYI website? I also want to know how you ascertained what address to post the requested information to when not only my first name and my surname, but also my private home address, were provided to FYI in the strictest of confidence, I know they have not disclosed this information to you, and I have also never disclosed my personal information to you or any other respondent through the FYI website? In addition, I want to know why I have been discriminated against by the ACC in terms of how differently you have responded to my FYI information requests compared to other FYI information requests?
I naturally consider that you have 'thumbed your nose' at my right to privacy and anonymity, and draw to your attention that Section 16 of the Official Information Act provides;
"(1A)
Subject to subsections (2) and (3), information made available in any of the ways listed under subsection (1) may be made available in electronic form or by electronic means.
(2)
Subject to section 17, the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation shall make the information available in the way preferred by the person requesting it unless to do so would—
(a)
impair efficient administration; or
(b)
be contrary to any legal duty of the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation in respect of the document; or
(c)
prejudice the interests protected by section 6 or section 7 or section 9 and (in the case of the interests protected by section 9) there is no countervailing public interest".
Patently obviously my preferred way of you making the requested information available to me was via the FYI website. Had this not been the case I would have made my information request by e-mail or by letter directly to the ACC.
I wish it to be noted that I have not received anything in the post at my private home address from ACC or its Government Services at date. In any event a response by post is not my preferred way of you making the information available to me and I now require you to publish your response at the FYI website.
Lastly, I do not have my "own discretion" to publish your response at the FYI website. Of course you know this. I am also not willing or prepared to go through the hassle of having to write to FYI to ask them to do this when you ought to have responded to my FYI information request at the FYI website and not by post to my private home address. And I am certain that FYI - which operates on a shoestring budget of public donations - would not be happy needing to scan and publish your response either.
This matter is being raised with the Ombudsman as a formal complaint and has also been cc'd to FYI management.
Yours sincerely,
Lee M.
-----Original Message-----
A response to this request has been sent to you directly. Please note that if you believe the information provided is in the public interest, you are free to post it on fyi.org.nz at your own discretion.
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #4258 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
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Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information.
If you believe you have received this email in error, please advise us immediately by
return email or telephone and then delete this email together with all attachments.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message
or any attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
hide quoted sections
From: Lee M.
Dear ACC Government Services and Mr David O'Riley at ACC's Wellington Central Branch
I refer to the written and signed authority provided by my wife and copied to the ACC and its lawyers that empowers me to communicate with both aforementioned bodies on her behalf.
I have witnessed over a period of more than 4 years how often the ACC has acted frivolously and vexatiously in communicating with my wife and in particular regard to her Official Information and Privacy Act requests. That you are well aware of the negative effects this has had on her yet have done this once again is unsurprising but reprehensible.
In relation to the information request under discussion S.16(3) of the Official Information Act states :
"Where the information is not provided in the way preferred by the person requesting it, the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation shall, subject to section 10, give to that person—
(a)
the reason for not providing the information in that way; and
(b)
if that person so requests, the grounds in support of that reason, unless the giving of those grounds would itself prejudice the interests protected by section 6 or section 7 or section 9 and (in the case of the interests protected by section 9) there is no countervailing public interest".
I am requesting under the authority provided by my wife and copied to the ACC and its lawyers that you give me :
a) the reason for not providing the requested information in the preferred way
b) the grounds in support of that reason.
You have not only breached the Official Information Act by failing to provide the requested information inside the legislated timeframe but you have also done so by refusing to recognise and respect my wife's legislated right at S.16(2) to have the ACC provide the requested information in the way preferred by her, and which is obviously through the FYI forum. Simultaneously you have disrespected and breached my wife's right to privacy by way of you writing on this public forum that the ACC has her on a "communication plan". Since the consequential harm in terms of embarrassment and humiliation has already been done I bring to your attention through this forum in response that the revised "communication plan" does not apply to this particular Official Information request because it was made on the 15th of July 2016 and the "communication plan" was only updated on the 21st of October 2016 (which is the same date of your reply posted at this forum). Crucially the aforementioned letter was collected by me on my wife's behalf on Saturday the 29th of October 2016 from NZ Couriers.
Since the earlier "communication plan" was in effect at the time my wife made the information request and she had not yet received the updated "communication plan" when you posted your reply at this forum on the 21st of October 2016 it is the conditions of the former not the latter "communication plan" that apply to this particular request.
That you would seek to impose conditions retrospectively is not only unfair and unreasonable but also confirmation of the outrageous lengths that the ACC is willing and does go to in order to frustrate and annoy information requesters.
Updating the "communication plan" to include Official Information and Privacy Act requests was also a frivolous and vexatious response to my wife's valid and legitimate Official Information Act requests posted at FYI most recently, and it is felt that this was deliberately done to hide the ACC;s responses from public view..
My wife has obtained a supportive letter from FYI that confirms she does not have any ability to post any information at this forum that the ACC provides by post. In this communication FYI wrote in relation to S.16(2) of the Official Information Act : "Our position is that this section means our users are almost always entitled to receive their responses back through the FYI system if that is what they prefer. (We also consider that this preference is implicit in all FYI.org.nz requests, as that is the main reason to use our site.)"
As I will be complaining to the Ombudsman on my wife's behalf in due course I am requesting that you reply to the abovementioned further information request as a matter of urgency for the aforementioned reason.
Yours sincerely,
Husband of Lee M.
From: Government Services
Dear Lee M
A response to this request has been provided to your private address. This decision is in line with section 16(2)(a) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Government Services
-----Original Message-----
From: Lee M. [mailto:[FOI #4258 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 10 November 2016 5:40 p.m.
To: Government Services
Subject: RE: Your request under the Official Information Act 1982 regarding the ACC18 form
Dear ACC Government Services and Mr David O'Riley at ACC's Wellington Central Branch
I refer to the written and signed authority provided by my wife and copied to the ACC and its lawyers that empowers me to communicate with both aforementioned bodies on her behalf.
I have witnessed over a period of more than 4 years how often the ACC has acted frivolously and vexatiously in communicating with my wife and in particular regard to her Official Information and Privacy Act requests. That you are well aware of the negative effects this has had on her yet have done this once again is unsurprising but reprehensible.
In relation to the information request under discussion S.16(3) of the Official Information Act states :
"Where the information is not provided in the way preferred by the person requesting it, the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation shall, subject to section 10, give to that person—
(a)
the reason for not providing the information in that way; and
(b)
if that person so requests, the grounds in support of that reason, unless the giving of those grounds would itself prejudice the interests protected by section 6 or section 7 or section 9 and (in the case of the interests protected by section 9) there is no countervailing public interest".
I am requesting under the authority provided by my wife and copied to the ACC and its lawyers that you give me :
a) the reason for not providing the requested information in the preferred way
b) the grounds in support of that reason.
You have not only breached the Official Information Act by failing to provide the requested information inside the legislated timeframe but you have also done so by refusing to recognise and respect my wife's legislated right at S.16(2) to have the ACC provide the requested information in the way preferred by her, and which is obviously through the FYI forum. Simultaneously you have disrespected and breached my wife's right to privacy by way of you writing on this public forum that the ACC has her on a "communication plan". Since the consequential harm in terms of embarrassment and humiliation has already been done I bring to your attention through this forum in response that the revised "communication plan" does not apply to this particular Official Information request because it was made on the 15th of July 2016 and the "communication plan" was only updated on the 21st of October 2016 (which is the same date of your reply posted at this forum). Crucially the aforementioned letter was collected by me on my wife's behalf on Saturday the 29th of October 2016 from NZ Couriers.
Since the earlier "communication plan" was in effect at the time my wife made the information request and she had not yet received the updated "communication plan" when you posted your reply at this forum on the 21st of October 2016 it is the conditions of the former not the latter "communication plan" that apply to this particular request.
That you would seek to impose conditions retrospectively is not only unfair and unreasonable but also confirmation of the outrageous lengths that the ACC is willing and does go to in order to frustrate and annoy information requesters.
Updating the "communication plan" to include Official Information and Privacy Act requests was also a frivolous and vexatious response to my wife's valid and legitimate Official Information Act requests posted at FYI most recently, and it is felt that this was deliberately done to hide the ACC;s responses from public view..
My wife has obtained a supportive letter from FYI that confirms she does not have any ability to post any information at this forum that the ACC provides by post. In this communication FYI wrote in relation to S.16(2) of the Official Information Act : "Our position is that this section means our users are almost always entitled to receive their responses back through the FYI system if that is what they prefer. (We also consider that this preference is implicit in all FYI.org.nz requests, as that is the main reason to use our site.)"
As I will be complaining to the Ombudsman on my wife's behalf in due course I am requesting that you reply to the abovementioned further information request as a matter of urgency for the aforementioned reason.
Yours sincerely,
Husband of Lee M.
-----Original Message-----
Dear Lee M,
In order to maintain the efficient administration of ACC, all responses to you will be provided as per your updated communication plan and not in the way preferred by you. This decision is in line with section 16(2)(a) of the Act.
Yours sincerely,
Government Services
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #4258 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information.
If you believe you have received this email in error, please advise us immediately by
return email or telephone and then delete this email together with all attachments.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message
or any attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
hide quoted sections
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Blue H left an annotation ()
Hello Lee M
I am having a similar issue getting info re procedures for changing Diagnosis. Is there some way we can make contact so i may obtain the information provided to you privately (can you attach it here somehow?).
Perhap we can share a temp Dropbox link?
Regards, Blue H.
Link to this