Workers who are injured on the job could be forced to pay a gap fee for some medical treatments, under proposed changes to the NSW workers' compensation insurance scheme
Workers who are injured on the job could be forced to pay a gap fee for some medical treatments, under proposed changes to the NSW workers' compensation insurance scheme.
The chief medical officer for iCare, Chris Colqhuon, said NSW taxpayers paid the highest cost in Australia with "no observed improvements". He said the average cost per claim had gone up by about 40 per cent since 2015."The biggest jump in those costs is hospital fees, driven by surgical intervention and the associated anaesthetics," he said.
"Fundamental regulatory changes are needed to support value-based care and reduce medical costs across the scheme." "All treatment requests must be approved by WorkCover agents and the government sets the rules as to what is compensable and what is not," Mr Milgate said. In NSW, surgeons who perform workers compensation-related operations are paid an extra 50 per cent for the first Medicare item and then a premium of 12.5 per cent for others after that. iCare is proposing that this levy be scrapped as it doesn't apply anywhere else in Australia.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the government would not pre-empt the final SIRA report, which is yet to be handed down. "We look forward to the next stage of the review process," he said.
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