Musculoskeletal Solutions
Managing and preventing musculoskeletal injuries and those more serious is a lot easier than people think.
We have developed a 5 Step Process that works - and works well.
It starts here, learn from the evidence - we do a review on your company ACC claims data (up to 7 years) and review your ACC levy code data for the last 8 years. What are the trends, issues, challenges… what are the learnings? We share numerous insights into your processes i.e. we regularly see a large dependence on medical certs; a large discrepancy between date of the injury and when a worker gets help; minimal understanding of how ACC works; etc. The cost for this is only $997 + gst.
Processes - set up / evolve internal processes to better support your worker management (links to HR and H&S). This covers recruitment, induction, claim triage, ACC, doctors & medical certificates, etc. We model your Experience Rating for 2024, 2025 and 2026 - you will know exactly what you need to do to get discounts. Processes and templates come standard with the review. We can assist with the implementation and pricing varies depending on the number of sites you have, number of staff, what needs to be implemented, etc.
Manage injuries - injuries will statistically happen (yearly 1 in 12 workers will hurt themselves) and when they do we want to manage them properly. We do not rely on ACC to do the right thing as that doesn’t happen often. If it did happen we wouldn’t have any issues in the claims space! We provide everything you need including access to our national physio network. You will still have access if you chose to manage your own claims however, for most clients we tend to do the claim management for them. Please note you do cover the physio surcharges which are standard rates.
Feedback into H&S - claims and ACC learning should loop back into your H&S framework so that the right changes can be introduced to prevent the injuries from happening in the future. We also set targets around days-off and medical cost claims over $500 - all with the view to driving discounts on your ACC levies via Experience Rating.
Measure - we have both lead and lag measures to allow you to monitor and measure progress.
Some claims we can legally challenge to have them removed from your Experience Rating. This can cover pre-existing injuries; reaggravated injuries; overuse injuries; motor vehicle injuries; fictitious claims; or perhaps ACC not following their processes (quite a large list for this!). In all but the fictitious claims option, the worker is not impacted. This is all about who is legally liable - you, or the general ACC pool.
National Rehabilitation Network
We have introduced a national rehabilitation network via our Partners TBI Health as well as dozens of independent physio clinics. This is for our clients where we have a designated booking page so you can book a physio anywhere in NZ. If We also have a Telehealth option - a wonderful initiative for remote clients or if you just want an alternative option. We also provide additional services such as manual handling training, pre-employments, and much more.
Return on Investment and Measurements
We use your ACC levies to measure whether your claims are being managed well. This is done via your Experience Rating and will give you all the incentive you need to manage this space.
We track days off, medical costs over $500, and of course your Experience Rating score.
It is not uncommon to improve your ACC levy cost by 10%, 20% or even 30% per year. This is through no other reason than taking control over your claims space. For a large number of employers there are discounts available of up to 50% and also penalties of up to 75%.
What Data do we use?
“Sue and the team at Manage Group have provided us expert advice on a number of occasions. Many thousands have been saved through using their service and following their expert advice.
Sue’s methods are clear and concise, allowing us to stay hands off but well informed throughout the service.
Thank you Sue and Mange Group.”
Interesting Facts
35 + industries we can model with precision
71 days - average length of an ACC weekly comp claim in 2020
65% - minimum number of sprains and strains claims for blue collar industries
1 in 12 workers will hurt themselves every year
Medical Certificates are not a legal requirement for employers, only for ACC to provide weekly compensation once 7 days have passed
50% - largest discount you can get on Experience Rating
100% - largest penalty you can get on Experience Rating
ACC introduced a Death Penalty in 2022. If you have a workplace fatality regardless of blame, you will receive a 20% loading in the first year and a 10% loading on your levies in the second year.
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Sue and her Team will get back to you in a flash!
Case Study: A client had a worker who suffered from a repetitive type claim allocated to their ACC Experience Rating profile. The claim had already incurred well over 300 days-off by the worker. Please note our client did not disagree that there was a workplace claim. ACC notes and medical evidence suggested that the claim could have been the result of various past employment placements. We picked up on that and placed a review on this claim. This resulted in two-thirds of the days-off being removed from our client’s Experience Rating. Over the three years this change created ACC savings of approximately $16,000 and removed over 200 LTI days (lost time injury).
Testimonials
“Martin and Team were engaged by Evolution Traffic Management Ltd to review our workplace claims. They used their deep knowledge of ACC process, and our historic data, to find claim anomalies and make practical recommendations. This assisted our inhouse team to manage claims, improve our experience rating, and ultimately to improve our management of risk, and health and safety.”
“Manage Group has made Health and Safety so easy. Manage are very proactive and gets things done. Basically means we can get on with other areas of our business whilst knowing the Health and Safety aspect are taken care of.”
“Tyremax is a distribution business with nationwide warehousing and delivery operations. Our operations involve a lot of manual handling, increasing our risk of the workplace ACC claims which influence the levies we pay under ACC’s Experience Rating penalty regime.
Manage Group reviewed our historic claims and provided a comprehensive report outlining the effect of our claims history on our ACC Experience Rating. The report explained how the Experience Rating is calculated, how our rating compared within our ACC industry classification and what this was costing the business in terms of penalties. The report also outlined a number of recommended solutions to improve outcomes for staff and drive savings for the business, demonstrating how better processes can directly impact the bottom line.
Manage Group took us through the report and the recommended solutions, the majority of which can be implemented easily by our health and safety team and HR management without impacting their day to day work. They were able to source most of the data for the report directly from ACC, so the impact on our time was minimal.
We would have no hesitation in recommending Manage Group to other businesses looking to manage their ACC costs better and improve H&S outcomes for their teams.”
“Key Skills have been working with Manage for most of 2021 and we have had some amazing results so far. Their knowledge of how ACC works and their expertise around working with them has been invaluable, it’s saved us heaps of both time and money!”
“We certainly appreciate your services and help with the ACC bureaucracy to save cost in our business & industry. Thanks again.”
“We were sure that there had to be some savings available with our ACC, but didn’t know where to start. Someone recommended Manage Group to us, who did an ACC review initially and managed to not only reduce our ACC levies going forward, their work also resulted in a refund. I have used them as a “go to” for any questions and queries since then and the advice is always clear and quick. Manage Group are a valuable advisor for us”
“Many thanks. We will keep you folks in mind and also for referrals!”
“Martin Wouters certainly has made an impact for the industry in his work to date ‘keeping ACC honest’ (so to speak). He knows the system and the right questions to ask to keep ACC on their toes and make them accountable.”