Accident Compensation Scheme Research Articles

Motivational Interactions: a client-centred engagement strategy in Australian accident compensation schemes

Motivational interactions is based on the foundations of “Motivational interviewing” and the “Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change”, Which is widely recognised as an important engagement strategy for people working in a case management capacity- working with a range of injured client/worker needs pertaining to resistance, ambivalence to change, motivation, development and return to work. The quality of the working relationship between the worker and client is said to be a significant predictor of outcomes for a client. Evidence has indicated that a collaborative positive client centred engagement that is responsive to the change process of individuals is a reliable indicator of outcomes in a range of mental health, psychosocial and physical injury issues e.g. stress, depression, anxiety, physical injury, disability, with positive relationships being correlated with better Return to work/Life outcomes.

Improving injury outcomes and experience of indigenous New Zealanders

This presentation outlines disparities in the uptake of accident compensation entitlements by indigenous New Zealanders and a programme to prevent injury and improve outcomes/experience for Māori. ACC administers NZ's 24/7 no-fault accident compensation scheme which covers New Zealanders and visitors to NZ injured at work, home, play, in road crashes, or during treatment. Research has shown that disparities persist in injury outcomes/experience for NZ's indigenous population (Māori make-up 15% of the population and experience multiple disadvantage). This is inconsistent with the Government's commitment to Crown-Māori partnership.Disparities findings persist for Māori included; higher rates of serious/fatal injuries on the roads, lower GP referral rates to medical/surgical specialists, found the claim process more complicated and ACC less helpful in their return to work and lower rates of employment participation following a serious injury.ACC's 10 year vision of success; improved outcomes/experience for Māori clients and businesses, increased injury prevention effectiveness for Māori and improved ACC culture and capability in relation to Māori.Over a three year period, the ACC Board considered a series of papers on disparities in the uptake of entitlements by Māori. In early 2013, the Board considered advice on the Scheme's and organisation's responsiveness to Māori and endorsed the need for significant improvements. We shall explore two phases. Phase 1 of ACC's Māori Programme aims to reduce disparities, build organisational capability and establish relationships. Initiatives include innovative solutions to improve employment participation of seriously injured Māori. Phase 2 builds new partnerships with indigenous organisations and embeds cultural-responsiveness into the organisation/system. Challenges include building genuine partnerships and sustaining the Programme in a changing organisational, social, political and economic context. Improving injury outcomes/experience for Māori is a long-term commitment. Programme success includes fewer fatal/serious injuries to Maori, better employment participation after injury, and new partnerships.

Entitlement to Cover for Chronic Pain Syndrome Under the Accident Compensation Scheme

Entitlement to Cover for Chronic Pain Syndrome Under the Accident Compensation Scheme

Inequality of Luck: Accident Compensation in New Zealand and Australia

The romance and liberating effects of the rise of the modern transport and industrial systems have attracted more attention than how accident victims, and their dependents, coped. Every modern society has a system of dealing with “blood on the bitumen” and “coming a gutser” at work or elsewhere but New Zealand is conspicuous in developing a no-fault comprehensive accident compensation system. About the same time, Australia had draft legislation before its legislature that included sickness too. Only New Zealand, however, in 1974, overturned common law and other remedies to institute a radical law reform over “accidents.” This paper considers the failure of policy transfer between New Zealand and Australia on this issue. More generally there has been relatively little historiographical interest in social experiments “down under,” or the expansion in the late twentieth century welfare states, despite the current public policy debate over an Australian disability scheme. It is argued that such expansions of the welfare state, such as no fault accident compensation, are awkward developments for the dominant neoliberal model of the state undermining welfare. With the Australian Labor government implementing its National Disability Insurance Scheme (2012), which will provide some people with disabilities care and support over their lifetimes, it is timely to consider earlier attempts, and failures, to implement wide-ranging compensation schemes. Most notably, Gough Whitlam’s government attempted a national scheme in 1975 that followed the implementation in 1974 of the no-fault accident compensation scheme in New Zealand. In this article I consider the failure of antipodean policy transfer over this issue in the 1970s. I also consider why labour historians have neglected the topic of late twentieth century welfare state expansion of accident compensation.

International Use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment

Abstract In the United States, the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides) is used in state and federal workers’ compensation systems and in automobile casualty and personal injury arenas. The AMA Guides is used in similar ways internationally. Most workers’ compensation jurisdictions in Canada use the AMA Guides formally by statute or regulation or accept its use informally as a standard tool to rate impairment. In Australia, the AMA Guides is used in both federal (Australian Commonwealth) and individual states’ (or territories’) compensation schemes; two tables show how almost all states in Australia have legislated various editions of the AMA Guides for use in workers’ compensation and motor traffic accident compensation schemes. New Zealand's Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) previously used the AMA Guides, Fourth Edition; beginning in July 2011 ACC uses the sixth edition. Hong Kong uses the AMA Guides as a reference in evaluating workers’ compensation and motor vehicle claims; Malaysia uses the AMA Guides officially in adjudication; and impairment rating in Asian countries such as Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore are influenced by the philosophy and principles of the AMA Guides. South Africa uses the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, to determine serious injury, and other editions are used in South Africa's workers’ compensation schemes. Many countries in Europe and the Middle East use the AMA Guides as a reference for determining impairment and in workers’ compensation and social welfare schemes.

Barriers experienced by Asians in accessing injury-related services and compensations

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) administers New Zealand's (NZ) accident compensation scheme. Asians in NZ are apparently under-serviced by ACC and may be experiencing barriers to accessing services. This study identifies barriers that Asians in NZ face in accessing ACC's injury-related services and compensations. By utilising a qualitative research design, 113 Chinese, Korean, Indian, and South East Asian participants residing in Auckland, NZ were recruited through maximum variation and purposive snowball sampling. Data were gathered during 2006 through 22 individual in-depth interviews and 14 focus group discussions based on semi-structured interview schedules. Interviewees included Asian general practitioners, traditional health providers, users and non-users of injury-related services, case managers and Asian community leaders. Data were analysed using a general inductive approach. Results show that personal/cultural characteristics such as age, gender, English language competence, injury-related language competence, differing Asian worldviews, and consequent help-seeking behaviours act as barriers to accessing services and entitlements. This is exacerbated by logistical and environmental factors such as cost, transport, time, inadequate interpretation and translation services, as well as institutional barriers such as lack of information about services, culturally inappropriate services, discriminatory attitudes and employment risks. It is evident that Asians living in NZ are experiencing several cultural, environmental and institutional barriers to accessing ACC services. There is clearly a need for more culturally relevant information and injury-related services if Asian immigrants' use of such services and entitlements is to be increased.

Medically unexplained chronic pain in Australia: Difficulties for rehabilitation providers and workers in pain

In Australia, evidence of an ageing population and a skills shortage are imminent challenges for employers [5,50]. A further concern arises from the work injury and motor accident compensation schemes, where many claims for soft tissue injuries result in permanent impairment depriving the community of otherwise productive workers [85]. In many cases, it is chronic pain that becomes the major barrier to a return to productive work. This study will review the operation of rehabilitation within Australian Workers' and Motor Accidents compensation systems in order to identify values and attitudes underpinning the vocational rehabilitation ethos. The models underlying current practice will also be identified. A comprehensive review of published literature and policy documents was undertaken. We identified a variety of contextual factors that influenced progress back into the workforce for people living with persistent pain. The conceptual models underpinning these factors within rehabilitation systems were explored. They were all driven by a strong focus on early return to work and at the same time the sustainability of rehabilitation as a profitable industry. Implications of these findings on the relationship between the rehabilitation provider and the person in pain are discussed. Rehabilitation professionals are influenced by and in turn influence the context in which chronic pain is experienced. Empirical data about the experiences of vocational rehabilitation professionals in Australian personal injury rehabilitation systems is lacking, yet the implications of the cost of chronic pain to the nation are significant. It is recommended that rehabilitation providers increase their awareness of the perhaps unforeseen traps within the various practice models they might be using on the goal of sustainable return to work for people living with pain.

Compensation, Ideology and Patient Safety in New Zealand's No-Fault System

As the idea of no-fault compensation for medical injuries attracts increasing attention in Europe, the experience of the New Zealand Accident Compensation Scheme offers an educational case history. This paper traces the different phases of the Scheme's approach to compensating medical injuries, and considers the rival ideologies underlying the divergent approaches adopted and what they say about the methods that consecutive governments have employed in order to secure patient safety.

Prospective outcomes of injury study

Background:In New Zealand (NZ), 20% of adults report a disability, of which one-third is caused by injury. No prospective epidemiological studies of predictors of disability following all-cause injury among New...

Pregnancy Following Failed Sterilisation Under the Accident Compensation Scheme

This paper analyses the approach that is taken in New Zealand in determining coverage for pregnancies following failed sterilisations under the accident compensation scheme. The approach adopted in the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in ACC v D is criticised and an alternative approach for determining whether such claims ought to be within the accident compensation scheme is suggested.

Posttraumatic Stress Among Hospitalized and Nonhospitalized Survivors of Serious Car Crashes: A Population-Based Study

Posttraumatic Stress Among Hospitalized and Nonhospitalized Survivors of Serious Car Crashes: A Population-Based Study

New Zealand's Accident Compensation Scheme and Man-Made Disease

This paper proposes that cover provided for "personal injury" within the current Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001 should be extended to include man-made disease. The concept of man-made disease is used to distinguish between naturally occurring diseases and diseases that are predominantly caused by human activities. An analysis of the existing principles within the accident compensation scheme reveals that such an amendment is supported by three principles in particular: the replacement of the right to sue for personal injury, community causal responsibility and prevention. It is argued that as well as introducing long-needed consistency into the scheme, cover for man-made disease would remedy some of the problems regarding compensation for work-related diseases.

Optimal accident compensation schemes

This paper considers the way in which accident compensation is offered as insurance against personal injury due to accidents. We begin by setting up a simple microeconomic model in which accident compensation schemes can be studied. Using this model, the accident compensation scheme that maximizes the expected utility of the insured for a given expected outlay of the scheme (that is, for a budget constraint for the insurer) is characterized. We show that, in order for the optimal schedule of indemnities to be increasing (more severe accidents lead to greater compensation) then, contrary to what has been assumed in the literature, the marginal utility of wealth must be decreasing in health. In particular, if the marginal utility of wealth is non-decreasing in health, then an optimal indemnity schedule cannot provide full compensation, in the sense that utility in each state is a constant.

An evaluation of mouthguard requirements and dental injuries in New Zealand rugby union

Objectives: To document the effects of compulsory mouthguard wearing on rugby related dental injury claims made to ACC, the administrator of New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme. Methods: An ecological study...

Have the Politics of Rate Regulation Produced a Better No-Fault Regime for Ontario ?

Ontario has changed its no-fault legislation substantially three times in the past decade. These changes have reflected the interest group lobbying of the insurance industry and the practising bar. However, the main and explicit motivation, especially for the latest revision, has been the government's desire to regulate rates. With the Automobile Insurance Rate Stability Act the government appears to have struck a very successful compromise. The lawyers have been allowed an increased, albeit limited, right to sue in tort. The insurers have achieved more certainty, with stricter time and monetary limits on benefits for non-catastrophic injury. Rates have been reduced in part through lower benefit levels, but primarily by throwing the cost of automobile accidents on to other collateral sources. There is, therefore, some subsidization of driving inherent in the legislation. There are also compensation gaps, especially in long term health care, that affect mainly the most vulnerable members of society. Both these shortcomings could and should be easily corrected. So far, it would appear that the politics of rate regulation have generated an improved no-fault automobile accident compensation scheme for Ontario.

Compensation for Motor Vehicle Injuries in New Zealand

Compensation for Motor Vehicle injuries in New Zealand is included as part of the overall no fault accident compensation scheme in the Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Act 1992. This Act replaced the Accident Compensation Act 1982 and abolished lump sum compensation for injuries and excluded mental trauma injury claims which were available under the previous Act. This led to considerable public dissatisfaction with the 1992 Act and brought lawyers back into the compensation process with damages claims for mental trauma injuries. The renewed interest of lawyers in litigation also led to an increase in exemplary/punitive damages claims. Despite this return to litigation the motor vehicle part of the no fault scheme presents few problems. It is well funded and is well accepted apart from the recurrent question of compensating drunken drivers for their injuries.

The New Zealand Accident Compensation Scheme: The Statutory Bar and the Conflict of Laws

Journal Article The New Zealand Accident Compensation Scheme: The Statutory Bar and the Conflict of Laws Get access Rosemary Tobin, Rosemary Tobin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Elsabe Schoeman Elsabe Schoeman *The University of Auckland. Our grateful thanks to Paul Myburgh for his helpful comments on an earlier draft Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Journal of Comparative Law, Volume 53, Issue 2, Spring 2005, Pages 493–513, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/53.2.493 Published: 01 April 2005

An introduction to the use of outcomes questionnaires in osteopathic practice

Abstract Background: Outcomes assessment and management is rapidly becoming a necessary part of daily osteopathic practice. Third-party payers such as workers compensation schemes, motor vehicle accident compensation schemes and health insurance companies are increasingly encouraging that osteopaths incorporate the use of outcomes assessment into their practice. Purpose: To provide an outline of the common outcome measurement questionnaires that are of particular relevance to osteopathic practice. Each of the following outcome questionnaire is reviewed: Patient Specific Functional Scale, Neck Disability Index, Upper Extremity Functional Index, Shoulder (Croft) Disability Questionnaire, Shoulder Pain and Disability Index, Oswestry Low Back Pain/Disability Questionnaire, Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire, Lower Extremity Functional Index, McGill Pain Questionnaire. Discussion: Selection of appropriate questionnaires and basic terminology is outlined. Implementation of the questionnaires into daily practice, their interpretation, recording and tracking of results is also discussed. Conclusions: This paper presents a number of common outcomes questionnaires that are reliable, valid and suitable for use in everyday osteopathic practice. They are generally well understood by the patient, time-efficient, easily scored by the clinician and thus, the use of these questionnaires should not be a burden on practice administration, the practitioner or the patient.

The Australian Picture

This paper, originally presented at a Symposium on Future of Accident Compensation: New Directions and Visions in Wellington, New Zealand, on 5 and 6 December 2003, presents a view of the reasons for the moves towards restriction of liability and damages in personal injury actions in Australia during the previous three years. It briefly sets out the process by which the restrictions have come about. It then draws attention to some of the legislative changes that have been made as part of so-called tort law reform. At the time of writing the article, that process was still in progress. The paper demonstrates how the cost of retaining the common law system in respect of motor accidents, even with limitations on recovery of damages, in New South Wales compares unfavourably with the no-fault system operating in the neighbouring State of Victoria and even more so when compared with the Accident Compensation Scheme in New Zealand. Similarly, the cost to employers of workers' compensation in Australia, which often includes the possibility of some access to common law action, is much higher than the cost in New Zealand, where common law action is excluded. This gives New Zealand manufacturers a competitive advantage over their Australian rivals. The conclusion reached is that the defects in the common law insurance system that the Woodhouse Royal Commission identified in New Zealand more than 30 years ago are alive and well in Australia. Furthermore, the changes that have been made in Australia as part of tort law reform will not only exacerbate many of the problems, but have also made the common law completely unprincipled.

Tort claims for road accident compensation and social security in South Africa

The statutory scheme of road accident compensation in South Africa encapsulates both the common law of tort or delict and the residue of liability insurance principles. The absence of meaningful interaction between the road accident compensation scheme and the broader social security system raises significant challenges. There are dissonant responses to the targeted misfortune, provision of benefits, financing, choice of remedies and socioeconomic‐political priorities selected by the South African government. It is argued that the current scheme should be identified as falling squarely within a state‐funded and regulated scheme of comprehensive social protection.