Employer information on claims and rehabilitation

Access your claims performance information

For: Employers and managers Information seekers

As an employer, you can use Comcare’s Customer Information System (CIS) to measure and monitor your agency's injury management and claims performance.

Sign in to Customer Information System (CIS)

If you need help, call our CIS helpdesk on 1300 366 979 or email agency.updates@comcare.gov.au.

Access to CIS is for authorised users only. Call CIS helpdesk to find your CIS administrator.

CIS system notices

Access and case manager updates

Comcare has updated the Rehabilitation Case Manager Update and Customer Information System Access Request forms into a single form.

The CIS Access Request and Rehabilitation Case Manager update form (PDF, 145.2 KB) will allow a customer to indicate whether the staff member needs to be added to Comcare’s list of Rehabilitation Case Managers, or given access to the Customer Information System, or both.

For all future access requests please use the new form and send to agency.updates@comcare.gov.au.

Get access to CIS

There are several levels of user access to CIS:

CIS administrator – is responsible for authorising all access requests and managing cost centre restriction.
Case manager – can access all available data for your agency, including individual claim details.
Management – can access high level reports regarding the agency’s performance, cannot access individual claim details.
Finance – can access a range of incapacity payment reports.

A user may have access to one or multiple levels.

New customer (agency) access

CIS New Customer Creation form (PDF, 96.2 KB) is used to create a new customer in CIS or update a customer record.
CIS Cost Centre Update form (PDF, 118.9 KB) is used to create or update a cost centre in CIS.

New user access

Complete the CIS Access Request and Rehabilitation Case Manager update form (PDF, 145.2 KB) to:

gain user access to the Customer Information System (CIS)
create, replace or update the details of a rehabilitation case manager.

The form must be signed by your agency’s CIS administrator.

Once the request is processed, we send you your user details and password. Your account allows you to view sensitive information and must not be shared with other people.

If another person in your agency needs access to CIS, they must apply for their own user details and password.

If you require access to information for another agency’s claims, for example, as part of a shared payroll arrangement, a CIS administrator from that agency must sign the access request form.

The CIS system allows the CIS administrator to control access to individual agency cost centres. If your agency has cost centre restrictions set up, your CIS administrator must grant access to new users. If you are unsure if this applies to your agency, call the CIS helpdesk on 1300 366 979 or email agency.updates@comcare.gov.au.

Email completed forms to agency.updates@comcare.gov.au. For more information call CIS helpdesk on 1300 366 979 to locate your CIS administrator.

Case manager access

Complete the CIS Access Request and Rehabilitation Case Manager update form (PDF, 145.2 KB) to:

create a new case manager
replace all of a previous case manager’s claims with a new case manager, or
update details of an existing case manager in the system.

Sign in to CIS

Once your access has been set up you can sign in to CIS.

Password/passphrase requirements

Comcare Services require passphrases that have a minimum length of 14 characters.

A passphrase must include one or more characters from at least three of the following character sets:

Lowercase letters from a through z
Uppercase letters from A through Z
Numeric characters from 0 through 9
Non-alphanumeric or 'special characters' including space ` ! @ # $ % ^ & * _ - + = ’ | \ ( ) { } [ ] : ; ” ’ < > . ? /

Note, symbols such as the Euro or British Pound are not counted as special characters for this procedure.

Passphrases must not contain your account name (lastname.firstname) or display name (FirstName LastName).

Examples of compliant passphrases

Here are some examples of compliant passphrases where minimum length is 14 characters (do not use these example passphrases as your passphrase):

“This is my number 1 passphrase” (upper case, lower case and numeric characters used)
“Passphrase$ are fun” (upper case, lower case and special characters used).

Examples of non-compliant passphrases

“Pa$$word1” (all character sets used but the passphrase is too short with only 9 characters used in total)
“I like typing passphrases” (only 2 character sets used, no numerical or special characters)

Note: Spaces are characters

CIS is designed to protect your user details against unauthorised access. If an invalid password is entered three times, your account becomes locked and you need to email agency.updates@comcare.gov.au to have it reset.

Resetting your password/passphrase

CIS passwords are protected and known only by the user. They are not accessible by CIS administrators and cannot be retrieved if forgotten. You will be prompted to reset your password every 90 days.

If you have forgotten your password or it has expired, you can request a password reset online. To do this, you will need to have set up your Security Questions and Answers. Once you have logged on to CIS successfully, you can set up your questions and update your password at any time through the Preferences function.

If you experience an issue call the CIS helpdesk on 1300 366 979 or email agency.updates@comcare.gov.au.

Using CIS

‘How to’ guides

We provide a range of guides to help you use CIS including:

Browsers that work with the system

CIS requires a browser that supports 128 bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for secure communication. It has been tested with:

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 and above.
Mozilla Firefox version 25.
Chrome version 34.
Safari version 5 (all in the Microsoft Windows environment).

File formats that can be used to export reports

Reports can be exported in the following formats:

.csv
.pdf
.rtf.

You can check which format is available when generating the report, or check the relevant page in the how to guides.

Copying data into Excel or Word

All charts and tables can be copied into word processing, spreadsheets or presentation packages. Some formatting may be required.

CIS reports

Our CIS reports provide essential management information about claims experience, associated costs and the profile of claims.

Reports can help you monitor performance trends and develop effective injury prevention and case management strategies for your organisation. You can make comparisons against other Commonwealth agencies as well as internally between your agency’s cost centres.

CIS is updated daily with data as at close of business on the day before.

Claim case estimates are updated on a monthly basis.

Reports have a range of content and presentation options including:

data by whole of agency or cost centre.
reporting periods of a financial year, calendar year and more. This varies with each report.

Management reports

Management reports give you the information on:

number of claims.
types of claims.
cost of claims.
length of time injured employees are off work (incapacity).

This can help you identify potential hot spots and develop effective injury prevention and case management strategies.

CIS only reports on claims submitted to Comcare, so it's useful to refer to your agency’s work health and safety incident reporting records when trying to gauge an overall picture of your agency’s injury history and performance.

Management reports include:

Case management reports

A number of the reports are larger customer data reports, which can be generated in .csv (spreadsheet) format, to allow you to perform detailed claims analysis.

Case Management reports include:

Financial and incapacity reports

These reports give you detailed remittance advice and a listing of incapacity determinations.

Some of the larger data reports can be generated in .csv (spreadsheet) format, to allow you to perform detailed claims analysis.

Case estimate reports

Case estimates are a prediction of what a claim will cost over its entire lifetime. They are based on experiences of similar claims and factors such as:

current medical treatment.
time off work.
current rehabilitation activity.

These estimates are one factor used to calculate an agency's premium.

Case estimate reports are generated from Comcare’s claim management database. They are updated monthly and are based on data at approximately two months before the upload date. This delay is needed to ensure an accurate calculation.

Table 1 provides approximate timings of when case estimate reports are available on CIS, and what month the reports relate to.

Table 1: Approximate timings for publication of case estimates
Case estimates based on data to end of month	Available on CIS
July	First week of October
August	First week of November
September	First week of December
October	First week of January
November	First week of February
December	First week of April (The extra time is to increase the quality of the estimates of claim costs as they are used in premium calculations.)
January	Last week of May
February	First week of June
March	Second week of June
April	First week of July
May	First week of August
June	First week of September

Security and privacy

Security

To protect the information on CIS we have several measures to prevent unauthorised access.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) – all communication between your browser and CIS system is encrypted to prevent it being read by anyone other than the intended recipient.
Authentication – all users of CIS are authenticated before they are given access.
Logging and Monitoring – all CIS activity is monitored and logged. CIS automatically signs off after 10 minutes of inactivity.
User access audit – regular user reviews are conducted to maintain currency of accounts. All agencies must revalidate their active CIS users as part of this process.

Privacy

The information provided to authorised users on the CIS is governed by the Privacy Act 1988 and users are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles under that Act. The Australian Privacy Principles set out standards for handling personal information.

Dealing with workers’ compensation can be a sensitive issue and it is important that personal information must only be used or disclosed for its intended purpose.

Glossary

Table 2: Glossary of terms used in the Customer Information System (CIS)
Term	Definition
Case manager	Workplace-based manager appointed and trained by the employer to undertake case management activities. Responsible for initiating, co-ordinating and monitoring the rehabilitation process.
Cheque Receiving Cost Centre	The cost centre to which Comcare sends the incapacity reimbursement cheques or EFT payment.
CIS Administrator	A staff member within an agency (usually EL1 or above) who is authorised to grant access to CIS to new staff members.
Claims manager	The claims manager is responsible for management of the claim.
Closed Claims	Claims are closed manually by claims managers when they are resolved or have had no activity for a specified period of time.
Cost to Date	Payments made to date (payments as at the date of extraction minus recoveries) on claims excluding any GST amount claimable by Comcare as an Input Tax Credit. Unpaid liabilities against a claim (for example, outstanding incapacity payments) will not be included in cost to date.
Incapacity	Incapacity is an inability to: engage in any work. work at the same level as immediately before the injury. Incapacity benefit is a payment made, directly or indirectly, by way of income maintenance.
Liable Cost Centre	This is the Cost Centre which has accepted liability for a claim as the claimant was attached to this cost centre at the date of injury.
Non-Incapacity	Includes medical, rehabilitation, lump sum and travel costs.
Open Claims	Currently active claims.
Payroll Cost Centre	Incapacity advices are generally sent to the payroll cost centre and they are usually the personnel or human resources sections in agencies. Each claim needs to have one of these recorded against it.
Premium	The premium charged by Comcare is the estimated costs of that agency's workers' compensation costs for a given financial year. It is based on fully funded principles and is designed to be responsive to the agency's claims experience.
Pre-Premium Claims	Claims with dates of injury prior to the introduction of Comcare’s premium system on 1 July 1989. These claims have separate funding to the premium claims and do not impact premium calculations at all.
Rehabilitation	A rehabilitation (or return to work) program is designed to help an employee recover and return to health and work following a work-related injury or illness. It is a coordinated process, based on medical advice, for the timely, safe and durable recovery and/or return to work for an employee.
Re-Opened Claims	Claims that have been closed and then re-activated.
Total Cost	Claim Cost to date plus the likely future cost as at the date of the latest case estimate update.

More information

Page last reviewed: 19 October 2023