News

Claims made easy June 2009

The sooner we receive a claim, the sooner we can make a decision on the claim, and the sooner we can help your worker back to work safely. If we know about an injury, we can help your injured worker get treatment as soon as possible. This will help improve their recovery time and benefit you in more ways than one:

• returning your worker to the workplace faster will help maintain productivity
• a shorter claim means reduced claims costs
• plus it will lower the risk of common law action.

The fastest way to get information to us is by using our online service. We now have one easy claim form to complete for employers and injured workers—no more separate Application for Compensation or Employer’s Report. Better still, you can fill in the claim form together online and then we can process the claim faster.

If you would like more information, call us on 1300 362 128.

Working partnerships WorkCover news for employers, industry and unions, Issue 1 May 2009

In this issue changes to the way premium is calculated, online services, streamlining the way we do business, and a continued focus on our ontrack claims management strategy.

We're here to help May 2009

If your injured worker makes a common law claim against you, WorkCover Queensland will investigate and manage the claim on your behalf. We work with you and your worker to reach a fair outcome, as quickly as possible.

You can follow these easy steps to help lessen the risk of common law claims and reduce your claims costs:

1. prevention—keep your workers safe to minimise workplace accidents
2. rehabilitation—support your workers in their return to work, provide suitable duties, and stay in contact with us and your workers throughout the statutory claim
3. cooperation—if a claim does go to common law, help us by providing as much information as you can so that we can manage the claim effectively. In our experience, common law claims are less expensive when employers work with us.

For more information, please call us on 1300 362 128.

Online services April 2009

We are committed to making it easier for you to do business with us. We have introduced a range of new online services to benefit our employer, injured worker, and provider customers.

You can now:

• submit suitable duties and return to work details
• submit a provider management plan
• submit a medical certificate for an existing claim
• submit a medical report
• submit an invoice
• request private hospital approval
• request a copy of a claim
• register or update provider details.

Simply click on the ‘online services’ link on our homepage to ‘send or request information’. You can also ‘lodge a claim online’—both workers and employers can use this service and it is a quick, simple, and effective way to lodge a claim.

Help your worker return to work March 2009

Put simply, rehabilitation helps to get your injured worker ontrack and back to work quickly and safely.

We are here to help, but rehabilitation is a joint effort…involving the injured worker, employer, medical providers, and our people.

In a recent case, a worker injured his left hand at work. His treating surgeon approved him for suitable duties with restrictions—no left hand work and only occasional driving. The employer advised there were no duties suitable for him given these restrictions.

We met with the employer and the worker and together developed a plan for his return to work. It turned out the biggest concern was traveling to the workplace. As the injury was to the worker’s non-dominant hand, suitable tasks were put together, the treating surgeon approved the duties, and the worker was back ‘ontrack’ to return to work.

The best way to help a worker get the most out of rehabilitation is to offer them suitable duties. Our research tells us that injured workers who are offered suitable duties are twice as likely to return to work than those who aren’t.

For this worker it meant a quicker return to work and their full wage, and for the employer it meant savings on claims costs, which reduces the effect on their premium.

So what does being ontrack mean? February 2009

A quicker return to work therefore lower claims cost. This is exactly what happened for one of our customers recently.

A worker injured his thumb in a workplace accident in October 2008. The thumb was almost cut off when a saw went through the bone. The seriousness of the injury meant the worker needed surgery to re-attach the thumb and the treating surgeon certified him for total incapacity until the end of January.

In November 2008, we met with the employer and the injured worker to ensure that he was ‘ontrack’ and to tailor a plan for his return to work. As the injury was to the worker’s non-dominant hand, suitable tasks were put together in a plan for the worker and employer to follow. The treating surgeon approved the duties, and the worker was back at work, at a construction site, within a couple of weeks from the meeting. For the worker this meant a quicker return to work and their full wage, and for the employer it meant savings on claims costs, which reduces the effect on their premium.

Start the year ontrack January 2009

Our approach to claims management ensures that Queensland injured workers are ontrack to rehabilitation, ontrack to recovery, and ontrack to return to work.

We work with the employer, the injured worker, and medical professionals to tailor an individual plan. This plan will ensure that the injured worker receives the right amount of support, for the right amount of time, at the right cost.

ontrack helps to return workers to the workplace safely and quickly, as well as reduce claims costs.