Pay for physio or have an ACC claim?
Over the last 12 months we have been having a few debates with Allied Health providers (physios) on whether we should have an ACC claim or pay the full physio charge.
The logic to have it as a non-ACC claim is that it doesn’t trigger Experience Rating, the penalty regime due to workplace claims. That is the only reason you should consider it.
That said, it is also a flawed reason due to a number of factors.
Actual Cost: for physio charges to impact Experience Rating, it needs to exceed $500 per claim. This amount triggers a penalty that is akin to 1% of your levy invoice. This is a crude rule of thumb but useful, nonetheless. $500 with a surcharge of $45 per session, allows for 11 physio treatments. In our experience, we typically need up to 3 physios for a strain / sprain so well within this limit. If you pay full price for a treatment at $80 for 3 treatments, you have spent an additional circa $100 but are not better or worse off on your ACC levies. If you do this over 10, 20 or even more sprains or strains, then this starts adding up.
Accessing ACC Support: ACC have a number of interventions to help keep workers at work… but there needs to be an ACC claim to tap into this. The Stay At Work (SAW) is one such intervention that should be used readily. Oh, and the cost of the SAW does not trigger the $500 as vocational rehabilitation does not impact your Experience Rating.
Worker Welfare: unless the business is part of the Accredited Employer Programme (AEP) then we suggest lodge the claim as a workplace claim and give the worker the benefit of the doubt and confidence that the support structures are in place.