An individual is eligible for health-related benefits depending on his own circumstances. For various benefits, the department had always required authorization in advance of receiving the benefit. So in certain instances an individual or the health care supplier or provider would have had to first contact the department to determine whether or not the individual was eligible for the benefit, and then get formal approval for it. Then every subsequent time they would be receiving the benefit they would also have to make a contact with the department to say, “I have exceeded my 20 physiotherapy treatments this year. Can I have another 20 of them, because my physician is prescribing it?”
One of our transformation or simplification activities was that if someone is prescribed something and it's authorized, he doesn't need to come back for a subsequent authorization. If it's already authorized, then the individuals are able to carry on with their treatment. So we've removed the need for subsequent authorizations when people have already been authorized to receive a benefit. They don't have to contact us again if they don't need to. The provider, in many cases, submits the bill to the department, so the individual is not paying out-of-pocket for it.