McDougall Review status update
The NSW Government has announced that it intends introduce legislation to strengthen governance, regulation, and agency roles in the NSW workers compensation system.
The announcement responds to eight recommendations of the Independent Review of icare and State Insurance and Care Governance Act 2015 Review (McDougall Review), including clarifying SIRA’s regulatory powers in relation to icare and the Nominal Insurer.
The introduction of this legislation will support work already underway to respond to the complex issues facing the workers compensation system.
The McDougall Review also recommended that the NSW Government consider reforms to some important scheme design elements related to thresholds and entitlements. SIRA has commenced analysis and will publish a consultation paper on the recommendations relating to:
- Further assessment of whole person impairment
- Replacement threshold test
- “Reasonably necessary” test
- Commutation and settlement.
Work is progressing on the recommendations that can be implemented operationally, with five being led by SIRA: recommendations 7, 8, 29, 30, 35, and 36.
To date, SIRA has:
- initiated a national discussion with other workers compensation and motor accident bodies on value-based healthcare
- kept its Board updated on SIRA and icare interactions and ensured that the Boards continue to meet regularly
- continued its program of work relating to fee-setting approaches, in consultation with stakeholders
- progressed the implementation of the findings from the SIRA Healthcare Review
- engaged with Treasury to test assumptions in the Nominal Insurer’s Business Plan
The recommendations allocated to icare will form part of a refreshed action plan SIRA is developing to publicly track and monitor performance.
The action plan will incorporate outstanding actions for icare arising from the 21-Point Action Plan and the McDougall Review.
The action plan will be published in September 2021.