Workplace claims cost you money… both operationally and via your ACC levies.
The former is hard to measure as it includes so many hidden costs like downtime, replacement labour, training and supervision, time wastage, productivity losses, etc. The ACC levy part though is directly measurable via your Experience Rating and will give you all the incentive you need to manage this space.
It is not uncommon to improve your ACC levy cost by 10%, 20% or even 30% per year. This is through no other reason than taking control over your claims space.
You may be happily surprised to learn not all claims need to sit under your business. In fact, there are quite a few things we can challenge ACC on with primary focus on removing claims from your business profile. Please note, we are not suggesting the worker isn’t injured or should not have all the help they can get. In fact, we support this wholeheartedly. What we are saying is that you do not need to be liable for all claims that happen… and as such shouldn’t be paying ACC penalties on those claims.
When we challenge claims we go directly to Review. This is a legal and semi-formal process (sits below District Court) and is binding on all parties. The only difference to Court is that one decision is not binding on another.
Case Study: A client had a worker who suffered from a repetitive type claim allocated to their ACC Experience Rating profile. The claim had already incurred well over 300 days-off by the worker. Please note our client did not disagree that there was a workplace claim. ACC notes and medical evidence suggested that the claim could have been the result of various past employment placements. We picked up on that and placed a review on this claim. This resulted in two-thirds of the days-off being removed from our client’s Experience Rating. Over the three years this change created ACC savings of approximately $16,000 and removed over 200 LTI days (lost time injury).
Claims that do not need to sit under your business shouldn’t… but unless challenged will. Claims we typically challenge include
Re-Aggravation: linking a claim back to a previous claim
Pre-Existing: linking a claim back to a previous claim
Repetitive Strain: often we can apply the liability to other employers or the general ACC account
ACC Mistakes: ACC make a lot of mistakes
ACC not doing Due Diligence
ACC not notifying the employer of a claim
ACC not recognising a formal challenge
Bogus Claim: claim did not actually happen or did not happen at work
Motor Vehicle: covers any registered vehicle and applies to drivers only
Within 90 days of a claim being accepted as a workplace claim. This is called the jurisdiction period and we have to lodge a formal review before the 90 days runs out. The acceptance of a workplace claim is typically done via a letter from ACC. That said, ACC have recently also texted this which we do not agree with… and ironically is another example of ACC not following due process as set out in the legislation. This is enough to warrant a legal challenge in its own right to have the claim removed from your business profile.
If 90 days passes, there is little scope to formally challenge ACC… unless… you have email(s) sent to ACC saying that you are challenging the claim. This is akin to lodging a formal review and if ACC hasn’t recognised this, there is scope to have this claim removed from your profile under Jurisdictional Rights.
Confused? Call us, we love this stuff 0800 747 569 - ask for Sue
Everything is done electronically leading up to the review. The review itself, and the preceding Case Conference are typically done via video rather than in person. So it is all rather efficient and doable.
We (you or us) request all the information from ACC regarding this claim (the ACC Medical Authority is a must for this) as well as a transcript of what has been said, emailed, etc between ACC and you the employer. We need that because sometimes an employer has said things that are not entirely useful. This tends to happen when emotions get the better of us and frustrations take over. Look, it happens. We can manage that… in fact, we can manage most things. The only thing we ask of you is to be honest with us.
ACC is not a No Fault Full Cover scheme for employers. ACC is very good at passing the blame to an employer and in turn, charging that employer penalties on their ACC levies… up to 75% of your base ACC. On top of that, penalties stay with you for 3 years!
The legislation has a few things in it that really help employers but are not often used by ACC. We do not think that is right so we are flying the flag for the little guy, the employer. If a claim legislatively doesn’t need to sit under an employer then why should that employer be financially penalised?
Over the last two years ACC have changed a number of processes and interpretations that make it even more difficult for employers. Luckily for you, we have the upper hand. Why? Because what ACC is doing is not necessarily legal under it’s own legislation. One of these things is automatically accepting a claim as a workplace claim. ACC actually has to do a wee bit of an investigation (which in our opinion it doesn’t do) and we have won a number of Reviews when we challenge ACC on this.
Net result is clients are better of by thousands of dollars. It is not uncommon to get a Return on Investment of over 500% - that is, you make over 5 times your money on the fee you pay us. Welcome to the world of ACC.
We are very good at challenging claims and as noted above, you tend to come out substantially financially better off. Why can we get the outcomes we get and do this at such good rates?
Well, three reasons.
We know the legislation - this is what we do. In fact, we love it and that goes some way towards getting the results we do.
ACC legally is obligated to pay people like us to challenge claims on your behalf. Not a huge amount but… enough to make it very cost effective for you.
We have your best interest at heart. We are employers and we understand a dollar saved is one that goes on the bottom line.