Legislative compliance DHBs must comply with all applicable legislation governing their financial operations. The key legislation governing DHB financial operations comprises the: (NZPHD) – as amended by the Public Finance Amendment Act 2004. DHBs should especially note the requirements of and Part 4 of the in relation to their reporting and financial obligations. DHBs must prepare Statements of Intent, annual financial statements and annual reports in accordance with , regulations made under the and generally accepted accounting practice (GAAP) (defined in section 11.5 below). DHB, or subsidiary of a DHB, is a Crown entity (specifically a Crown Agent) as defined in s7 of the CE Act 2004. Default financial powers provisions of the CE Act 2004 to all Crown Entities, unless otherwise authorised by regulation or by the entity’s responsible Minister and the Minister of Finance. DHB requirements were included in the Crown Entity (Financial Powers) Regulations 2005 promulgated in March 2005 and amended in 2006 (SR 2006/294). The OPF reflects regulations, ministerial authorisations and policy decisions concerning DHBs in relation to the . Some provisions of the (as amended by the Public Finance Amendment Act 2004) continue to affect DHBs, in particular: s4 (expenses or capital expenditure must not be incurred unless in accordance with appropriation or statutory authority) – as it relates to use of operational and capital funding from the Crown s26 (terms and conditions of capital injections) – the Minister of Finance may determine terms and conditions of capital injections to DHBs after consultation with the Minister of Health s27 (annual financial statements of government) – as it relates to DHB financial information consolidated into the Crown financial statements s49 (liability for debts of Crown entities) – the Crown is not liable to contribute towards the payment of any debts or liabilities of a DHB or a DHB subsidiary s74 (unclaimed – at the end of each financial year, any money in any bank account of a DHB that has remained unclaimed for a period of 6 years from the date it was payable to the entitled person must be deposited with the Treasury s80 (Treasury instructions) – as it relates to consistency of DHB accounting policies with Crown reporting requirements.
procedures for dealing with a breach of limits. The Treasury Policy should also linkage to authorities and responsibilities set out in the DHB’s delegation policy liquidity management investment management key banking relationships Treasury monitoring and reporting (daily, weekly, monthly, to the Board). DHBs should review Treasury Policy at least annually and: assess the impact of Treasury transactions made during the year (eg, how the result differed from an unhedged position, what was the cost of any hedging) evaluate which risk exposures may be significant in the coming year and out-years recommend any modifications required to the Board for approval. Derivative transactions (See ss and , and New Zealand Gazette, 21/7/2005, no. 110, p. 2644.) DHBs have Ministerial authority to enter into foreign exchange and interest rate derivative transactions on the conditions specified in their Crown Funding Agreement (New Zealand Gazette, 21/7/2005, No. 110). Regulation 15 permits Crown entities (including DHBs) to enter into the following derivative transactions: a foreign transaction with a registered bank or registered building society that satisfies the credit-rating test stipulated in regulation 7(1), or a bank outside New Zealand that satisfies the credit-rating test stipulated in regulation 8(1)(b), for the purpose of: i procuring foreign exchange (including negotiable instruments and other documentary transactions) for use by Crown entity members, officials, or employees while in the country of that foreign currency or while en route to that country ii procuring foreign exchange in order to discharge a liability arising under any of the classes of contract or instrument referred to in regulation 14 iii procuring foreign exchange in order to: 1. deposit funds into a bank account 2. invest in debt securities 3. repay borrowing 4. pay a guarantee or indemnity. a futures contract having the sole purpose of covering any foreign exchange transaction authorised by this regulation
The provision of quality information The following section sets out the obligations for DHBs to be good corporate citizens in respect of the information they provide. These obligations and responsibilities are recorded below with the specific authority for the delivery of the information. Quality, standards and completeness (See s, ss and and CAB(00) M 22/11.) In respect of information provided to the Ministry (either directly or via other organisations particularly those operating under a bulk funding arrangement), DHBs must take the following action: ensure that the information is of the highest possible quality. The information must be timely, comprehensive, accurate, consistent and a complete representation of the facts take proactive action to develop and improve internal processes in to maximise data quality. This activity must include: giving consideration to the negative effect any proposed system change may have on data quality and minimising this impact providing appropriate training and resources to staff involved in the collection, dissemination and storage of health information undertaking timely consultation with the Ministry when changes are applied apply sufficient resources are applied to meet high quality extracts to the National Collections and National Systems See s, s and CAB (00) M 22/11. Each DHB must ensure that any change to national health data standards and classifications is reflected in the information that it provides to the Ministry. Changes will be made by the Ministry and approved by either the Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO) or other duly mandated sector-wide reference groups and notified to DHBs. Audit of data collection and reporting Each DHB must ensure that clinical coded data submitted to any of the National Health Collections complies with ICD-10-AM classification standards, the New Zealand coding conventions and the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) requirements by: Informing the Ministry on activities and actions taken in relation to data quality reports generated by the Ministry reviewing NMDS event data and providing feedback when requested to do so by the Ministry correcting errors in NMDS data that are identified by the Ministry ensuring processes are in place to continually evaluate and improve the quality
of clinical coded data providing an opportunity for clinical coders to participate in continuing education, both internal and external to the DHB, and ensuring individual clinical coders have an education development plan. Privacy and Security (See , , CAB (00) M 22/11 and the Health Information Privacy Code 1994.) DHBs are to ensure that: personally identifiable information about individuals is treated with the utmost care and that all privacy legislation and security policies are complied with a formal written authorisation is established before their agents access personal information from the National Collection Systems under the ‘Information Sharing Agreement between NZHIS & DHBs’ that came into effect on 18/12/07. The authorisation is to specify the agency relationship, the purpose(s) for granting the access, and the intended use of the information when the authorisations [referred to in clause b) above] are established or changed, this is immediately reported to the Team Leader, Analytical Services, NHB, the Ministry both information and IT systems managed by the DHB are protected to prevent unauthorised access, damage to or disclosure of information held; be it by either individuals, malware or viruses. Ethnicity reporting (See s, CAB (00) M 22/11, CAB Min (02) 31/13, POL Min (03) 27/3 and CAB Min (04) 42/5A.) For all patient specific services and with particular reference to ethnicity, DHBs must: collect, record, store and output accurate and complete ethnicity data, based on the Ethnicity Data Protocols for the Health and Disability Sector. As part of this process, each DHB must ensure that: all service providers meet the national standards indicated in service agreements to monitor provider compliance and that there is effective follow-up where these requirements are not met they work with the Ministry to educate providers and health and disability sector organisations regarding ethnicity information they can demonstrate that effective processes are in place to monitor and improve the quality of ethnicity data collected ensure that appropriate ethnicity information is included in: reports to the Ministry to aid the monitoring of health issues and improving policy advice reports to both its Māori, Pacific Island specific ethnic and ethnic communities for the purposes of , the monitoring Pacific and ethnic health issues.