New Standards of Practice for managing psychological injury claims
New Standards of Practice for managing psychological injury claims
SIRA has amended the Standards of practice: Expectations for insurer claims administration and conduct (Standards) to include a new Standard for the management of psychological injury claims (Standard 33) which will take effect from 1 March 2021.
Standard 33 sets expectations for insurers when managing psychological injury claims, and is based on the following principle: Psychological injury claims are to be managed with empathy and a strong focus on early treatment, tailored communication, timely recovery and return to work, in a manner likely to minimise conflict and delay.
Standard 33 is underpinned by the Safe Work Australia publication Taking Action: A best practice framework for the management of psychological claims in the Australian workers’ compensation sector. This framework has previously been endorsed by SIRA and has the broad support of workers compensation schemes across Australia.
Some other minor changes to the Standards have also been made, including changes which reflect the establishment of the Personal Injury Commission (PIC) and Independent Review Office (IRO) from 1 March 2021.
Minor changes have also been made to:
- Standard 13 Additional or consequential medical conditions
- Standard 15 Approval and payment of medical, hospital and rehabilitation services; and
- Standard 23 Recovery of payments due to insurer error.
The updated Standards of Practice February 2021 have now been published including a table of changes and the outcomes from the public consultation are available Standard of Practice 33: Managing psychological injury claims.
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