IAT ‘fix’ labelled workaround as DoHDA adds post-assessment editing

An expert says the new assessment editing function creates inefficiencies while avoiding deeper questions about the controversial tool.

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More details have emerged about the new functionality the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is introducing to the controversial Integrated Assessment Tool used to assess the needs of people seeking funds under the Support at Home program.

For months the department has been criticised for blocking the ability of human clinical assessors to override the IAT. The result has been people being assessed as needing less support than they were already receiving, or than they clearly need.

The simplest solution would be to lift that prohibition and allow assessors to overrule the IAT when a mistake has clearly been made.

Instead, the DoHDA has quietly introduced what sector experts are calling a “workaround” that will allow aged care assessors to reopen and amend completed IAT assessments after they have been reviewed by a delegate.

Professor Kathy Eagar, one of the sector’s most prominent critics of the IAT, said the changes appeared designed to address symptoms rather than underlying problems with the assessment system.

“It’s not really a fix,” Professor Eagar said on LinkedIn.

“It’s a potential workaround that creates extra inefficiencies to save the Department from having to admit there’s a problem.”

Adrian Morgan, general manager at Support at Home provider Flexi Care, said the fix was “further evidence that the Department is revising its previous stance that all is well with the IAT/algorithm”.

HSD has learned that training materials recently distributed to assessment agencies reveal assessors will soon be able to edit and update previously finalised IAT assessments when they are returned by a delegate for amendment.

The change addresses a significant limitation in the current system. At the moment, once an assessor finalises an IAT, the assessment is locked and can no longer be edited, even if errors or omissions are subsequently identified.

According to the training materials, from 29 June delegates will be able to return assessments to assessors when amendments are required, allowing information within the IAT to be corrected or updated before a final decision is made.

The materials state that delegates will be able to view both the original IAT outcome and any revised outcome generated after amendments are made.

The department, HSD understands, has told assessment agencies that process is intended to ensure all relevant information is captured within the assessment.

Changes could result in a different Support at Home classification, although in some cases the amended assessment may produce the same outcome.

The move follows a separate departmental initiative unveiled earlier this month aimed at providing assessors with greater visibility into how the IAT works and how assessment information contributes to classification outcomes.

Taken together, the changes appear to represent a gradual reintroduction of human oversight into a system that has attracted sustained criticism for relying too heavily on algorithm-driven assessment outcomes.

Critics have argued for some time that the key issue is not whether assessors can amend information after the fact, but whether the IAT itself is appropriately translating clinical and functional information into support classifications.

While the new functionality may reduce the impact of data entry errors and omissions, it leaves unanswered broader questions about the assessment methodology underpinning the tool.

The department has not yet published a public fact sheet outlining the new process, although fact sheets are typically released around the implementation of major system changes.