Larger Employer ACC Wins

We often get asked what is possible outside the Accredited Employer Programme (AEP) – where employers cover their own ACC.

In all honesty, we typically get greater ACC savings outside the AEP with less risk for 3 reasons.

1] Experience Rating discounts of up to 50% are removed in the AEP. The 50% discount is very much achievable and no, you do not need a perfect claims record to achieve it.

2] The maximum exposure of a claim is capped at 365 days. A fatality is also capped at a maximum of 30% of your ACC levies (20% for the first year and 10% for the second year).

3] The employer has similar control levers to manage claims as per the case study below. There are numerous things we can challenge whether a claim impacts Experience Rating (irrespective if it is a legitimate workplace claim).

Case study – we compared an employer not in the AEP with that employer being in the AEP.

Not in the AEP meant a bit more freedom – the ability to manage claims and ACC processes; utilise the ACC system and its nuances, still have claims and get the maximum discount.

Although the discount within the AEP programme can be good, the company needs to choose the correct level of cover; underwrite a substantial level of risk; pay for insurances to manage some of that risk; pay for audits, admin fees, claims, cost of claims, etc. If the employer chooses the incorrect cover, not only do they place themselves in a precarious position with ACC, it can also pay substantially more than what it would under the normal ACC set up.

This doesn’t mean the AEP programme doesn’t suit everyone, it simply means as an employer you should choose the programme that’s right for you.

In our case study an employer in the transport industry has 1,000 employees throughout the country. Employees were taking significant amounts of time off for injuries to the detriment of the employer – impacting them financially and operationally.

Working closely with the company, we were able to assist them to achieve substantially better results for 2023.

You will note the claim number itself has not decreased. In fact, we encourage ACC claims as it opens up a whole raft of support (allied health and vocational health) that we can tap into at minimal expense to the employer. It also places the worker in a better position so they have access to the right support and weekly compensation should that be required.

We do however challenge claims where the legislation allows. This may cover fictitious claims; poor process by ACC; health matters impacting rehabilitation; reaggravation / preexisting injury; motor vehicle claims; etc.

During 2023 we successfully disputed a number of claims (over 20) for this employer through various channels available. These included:

• Informally through a conversation with ACC

• Through an alternative dispute resolution process

• Through a formal review process

• Through the ACC fraud team

We were also able to clean up a number of legacy claims for 2021 and 2022 of which 10 were overturned in favour of the employer.

Overall, the employer is enjoying substantial discounts on their ACC levies; better productivity from staff; less first week payments made; better staff retention; less time wastage by managers dealing with claims (we do that for them) which all means less expenses and in most cases, more profit.

These results are not unusual, and we typically create a very solid return-on-investment for clients in both blue and white collar environments.