Key features of the Act
The amendments are intended to commence on 1 July 2021, but will take effect on 1 January 2022 at the latest. Any worker making a claim for a mental injury on or after this date will be eligible for provisional payments, so long as an insurer has not previously determined a claim relating to the same injury or circumstances.
Under the new provisions, employers will be required to notify their insurer of a mental injury claim within three business days of receiving notice of the claim from an employee. Contravention of this section is subject to 60 penalty units for natural persons, or 300 penalty units for a body corporate. The worker will be provided with access to payments for reasonable medical and like expenses for their mental injury within two business days of the claim being lodged with the insurer.
The Act provides injured workers with access to provisional payments until their claim has been determined. It should be noted that provisional payments are not considered 'compensation' for the purposes of the Act.
If a worker's mental injury claim is rejected, provisional payments will continue to cover the medical and like services for their mental injury. This will be for a period of up to 13 weeks from the date they are deemed eligible for the provisional payments. The objective of this is three-fold:
- to support injured workers whose claims are initially rejected due to insufficient medical evidence, but subsequently overturned;
- to support injured workers whose claims are rejected and who choose to dispute this through the Accident Conciliation and Compensation Service; and
- to support injured workers whose claims are rejected to return to work and transition to the public health system.
Workers whose claims are rejected will also have access to transitional services to assist with their return to work, including occupational rehabilitation.
Finally, the penalty provisions in relation to the timeframe for notifications are intended to commence on 1 January 2022. This will be six months after the remaining amendments are set to come into effect, to allow for a period of adjustment for employers.
Costs to the scheme
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy explained that extensive financial modelling has been undertaken by WorkSafe. This was to ensure the financial viability of the scheme is not compromised by the introduction of provisional payments. To cover the costs of the amendments to the scheme, an additional $6.1 million will need to be collected within the first 12 months. This represents an impact of 0.003% on the premium rate.
Key takeaways for employers
Assuming the laws take effect, employers will need to ensure they comply with the shorter period for mental injury notification, so as to avoid a penalty being imposed.
Employers should also be aware that the funding responsibility for rejected claims will sit with WorkSafe. The payments for rejected claims will not impact individual employer claims histories or premiums. Instead they will be allocated at an industry level, reflecting an assessment of where the risk or hazard lies.
Please get in touch with a member of our Workplace team if you would like more information on anything we have discussed in this article.
