Launching Your Appeal
The first step to appealing a decision made by a Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) is to write to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board (HSARB) to tell them you wish to do so. Once you do this, HSARB will assign an Appeal File Number to your case, and they will send you the appeal forms you need to fill in to file the appeal.
The Pre-Hearing Conference:
For almost every appeal, the HSARB will hold a pre-hearing conferencePre-hearing Conference: a meeting that usually happens over the telephone before an HSARB hearing takes place. Its purpose is to talk about the important issues in the appeal, and to see if an agreement can be reached so the parties do not have to go to a formal Board hearing., and sometimes they will hold more than one.
The pre-hearing conference is usually held over the phone and will give both sides a chance to:
- Agree about what issues are being appealed.
- Talk about the issues and perhaps agree on a settlement.
- Agree about what factsFact(s): knowledge or information that is based on something that has actually happened and evidenceEvidence: a letter, a picture, a document, or anything else that is related to your case that may help prove your side of the story will be used at the hearing.
- Share information that will be used at the hearing.
- Decide how long the hearing might take.
- Think about anything else that might help the partiesParty(ies): the people involved in the hearing who will be affected by the Board’s decision. The parties are usually just the appellant (the person who applied for the appeal) and the respondent (the other side to the appeal). settle the issue.
- Set a date for the hearing that works for everyone.
If you do not come to an agreement on the issues at the pre-hearing conference, nothing that is talked about during the meeting will be used against you at the hearing.
How to Prepare for the Hearing
Thinking About the Issues:
To prepare for the hearing, get ready to explain each issue you want to appeal. Think about any facts or arguments that might help prove that something did or did not happen, or that something should have happened.
Think about the other party’sParty(ies): the people involved in the hearing who will be affected by the Board’s decision. The parties are usually just the appellant (the person who applied for the appeal) and the respondent (the other side to the appeal). side of the story: In what ways do you disagree? What did they leave out? How do you respond?
What witnesses do you think you will need? You may be the only person with first-hand informationFirst Hand Information: information that you know personally, without having to ask another person. This means that you did not hear or receive the information from another person, but saw or know of it yourself. about your side of the story, but if someone else has information that supports your side, then you should probably bring that person, or those people to the hearing as a witness.
Prepare Your Witnesses:
- Meet with your witness(es) to explain why you have asked the person or people to speak for you.
- Write down questions you want to ask your witness(es). Questions should help your witness(es) talk about the things you think are important for making your case.
- Practice asking your questions with your witness(es) so you both feel confident and comfortable.
Get to Know the Law:
It will be helpful for you to read the legislation that describes what the CCAC is supposed to do when they serve people in the community.
It is important that your arguments at the hearing are based on how you think the CCAC didn’t follow the law when they made the decision to:
- deny you a service you think you should get
- give you less service than you think you need
- cut back your hours of service
- change your services
- stop your service
It will also be helpful for you to look at other cases the review board has heard that are similar to yours. In that way you might get ideas about what evidence helps the board decide.
Documents:
- Any documents you are planning to use to support your case should be sent to the review board and the other party at least 10 days before the hearing.
- You can use any document about the specific issues you have raised. Examples might be emails, assessments, doctors’ reports, or notes you may have made about your services.
Interpreters:
If you, or any of your witnesses, need an Interpreter, tell the board as early as possible. They will get an Interpreter and pay for this service.
If You Can’t Make it:
You might find out that you can’t make the hearing at the time or date that was set. If something comes up that prevents you from attending the hearing, you can ask the review board for a different time or date. It’s important to attend – if you just don’t show up and don’t give a good reason for it, your file may be closed and there will be no hearing.