Accident Compensation Act Review:
The final recommendations of the Accident Compensation Act Review were released in August and have now had a regional consultation period. The review has come up with many interesting proposals – so many that the official ‘Guide to the Review’ weighs in at over 50 pages. However, we have picked out a select few of the proposals which have caught our attention:
- The review has highlighted that the WorkCover scheme sees only 14% of claims disputed and ultimately 91% of claims are accepted. In line with prioritising return to work outcomes, the review has recommended implementing ‘provisional liability decisions’. This would mean weekly benefits and medical expenses are paid immediately while the liability determination process is completed, ie that the worker receives immediate support and S112’s, Factual investigations, physio, rehab etc can be implemented appropriately before any decision has been made. In the words of the review, “The introduction of provisional liability would mean that the scheme was designed for the majority of claims, rather than the minority of claims.”
- As expected, the recommendations also include a provision relating to stress claims which would strengthen Section 82(2A) to provide greater protection for reasonable management actions while keeping the ‘reasonable’ test to protect workers from abuses.
- Employers will also be given a limited right of review to appeal Agent’s liability decisions. A successful appeal will not affect workers access to assistance, however, the employer will be protected from any premium impact.
- ‘Medical and like’ expenses claims to have liability decisions within 28 days, in-line with decisions on weekly benefits claims
- The review is strongly suggesting changes to keep lump sum claims within the Impairment Benefits stream and to reduce the number of common law claims. To do this, the ‘deeming point’ for serious injury would be reduced to 20% and the maximum lump sum payable would be increased to match the common law maximum. The review views the common law path as a very expensive way to decide the appropriate lump sums payable.
- In line with recent Court decisions which have been reported in previous MPOL newsletters, the review suggests formalising the exclusion of secondary psychological injuries, ie those which arise as an effect of an original physical injury.
- Self Insurers have seen proposals which would reduce the amount of information required to be provided, have legislative certainty regarding the requirements to become self-insured, have subsequent licence approvals extended to 6 years and to have Self Insurer contributions to the VWA indexed according to company size and claim risk, ie that larger, higher-risk SI’s pay higher VWA contributions than smaller lower-risk SI’s.
As always with these types of review, it will again be interesting to see which proposals are enacted and what changes are made as the Victorian government and the VWA work through the implementation.