ACC Admits to Short-Changing Claimants

ACC Admits to Short-Changing Claimants

ACC has dropped a bombshell admitting that from a sample of 144 claimants’ rehabilitation plans taken in June 2008 more than half did not meet ACC’s “standards.”

“This is a staggering admission by ACC” says Mr David Wadsworth, Advocate and Principal of Access Support Services. “It means over half of the claimants undergoing rehabilitation may have been short-changed and that the legislative processes were not followed correctly.”

For a number of years Access Support Services has been aware of inherit flaws in the way ACC prepares a claimant’s individual rehabilitation plan, which ACC ironically now call “My Plan”. This includes failure to give treating medical practitioners an opportunity to participate in the preparation of a claimant’s rehabilitation plan.

“Over the last 4 years we have written to the Minister of ACC, Opposition Parties, the CEO of ACC, various ACC staff and other organisations about this matter. We have also issued a number of press releases about this” says an outraged Mr Wadsworth. “It is a scandal only made worse by the fact it has taken until now for ACC to check what we have been saying all along is correct.”

“This is why claimants need representation when ACC’s prepares the individual rehabilitation plan,” opines Mr Wadsworth. “I think ACC has lost the right to be the gatekeeper to a proper rehabilitation plan and it should now make funding available to claimants so they can access effective representation to enable them to participate more fully in the rehabilitation process.”

ENDS

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