October communiqué
Prior to its October Board Meeting, the SIRA Board conducted its annual Strategic Planning Session. Members welcomed discussion on the forward view for 2020, with a focus on SIRA’s role as a regulator including design and reform, influencing and enabling and supervision and enforcement. The Board will continue to work with the SIRA executive to finalise the strategy, which will be published on the SIRA website.
The Board received a briefing on the Compliance and Performance Review of the Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer Scheme (managed by icare) and the report being prepared by the Independent Reviewer, Ms Janet Dore, with the support of independent actuaries, EY. The Board noted that SIRA has now published all submissions received during the public consultation phase of the Review (which have approval to be published), and these are available on the SIRA website.
The Board commended the success of the inaugural SIRA Symposium held on 18 October 2019. The SIRA Symposium provides decision-makers, stakeholders and thought leaders across the personal injury sector with a forum to collaborate on key challenges and opportunities to improve outcomes for customers in the sector.
The Board received a progress report on the first phase of the program of work underway to understand and respond to rising health care costs and utilisation in the workers compensation and CTP schemes. The Board discussed the findings arising from a health sector benchmark analysis and a comparison of trends in health expenditure between types of workers compensation insurers.
The Board discussed support for workers affected by section 39 of the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (the Act) who have subsequently been affected by section 59A of the Act, and noted a support program for workers is in the final stages of development and implementation. SIRA continues to engage with stakeholders on a regular basis to review and discuss initiatives available to support workers.
Other matters at the October 2019 Board meeting included:
- a progress report on several matters relating to the Compulsory Third Party (CTP) Scheme
- an update on the Home Building Compensation Scheme
- a quarterly report on key SIRA People and Culture statistics.
Trevor Matthews
Chairperson, SIRA Board