EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

WORKERS COMPENSATION INSURERS FORM SPECIFICATIONS 2002 (No 1)

NOTIFIABLE INSTRUMENT NI 2002—209

Workers Compensation Act 1951

Legislative context

The Workers Compensation Act 1951 and the Workers Compensation Regulations 2002 establishes a framework to rehabilitate injured workers.  Employers, insurers and injured employees are obliged to cooperate in the development and implementation of personal injury plans.

The Workers Compensation Regulations 2002 provides for the Minister’s approval of insurers, who are considered suitable for selling workers compensation insurance policies in the Territory.  Regulation 78 states it is a condition of an insurer’s approval to comply with any protocols, relating to insurers, made by the Minister.  Regulation 100 empowers the Minister to make protocols about the requirements for, or the contents of, forms and other documents used in relation to injury management and claims.

Outline

The Insurers’ Form Specifications 2002 details the data fields that must be incorporated by insurers into their workers compensation forms, the Register of Injuries and the Early Injury Notification notice (chapter 6, section 92 and section 94 of the Act, respectively).

The data fields specified are drawn from the ACT Government’s Accident Information Management System (AIMS) database.  Most data collected by the database is provided by insurers.

Specifying the data fields that must be incorporated into insurers’ forms enables the Territory to ensure that essential information collected by insurers is consistent.

Financial Impact

Specifying the data fields provides a marginal saving to the Territory in relation to the costs of maintaining compliance with data provision.  Establishing required data fields to be incorporated into insurers’ forms also saves the Territory from funding the creation of approved forms.