The State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) is under scrutiny as an independent inquiry into its complaints handling process has been initiated, in accordance with Section 82 of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013.
The inquiry will be led by the Hon. Alan Robertson SC, a former Federal Court judge, appointed by the Hon. Jihad Dib.
The investigation’s focus includes examining SIRA’s response to three specific, long-standing workers compensation complaints. The inquiry will:
In addition to these three complaints, the inquiry will also address 12 other complex complaints, many of which were part of a 2022 review of SIRA’s complaints management.
The goal of the inquiry is to recommend improvements for SIRA and DCS in handling future complaints and to enhance the regulator’s compliance with workers compensation laws concerning complaints from injured workers.
The final report is expected by Dec. 6, 2024, with the results and any proposed actions to be presented to both houses of Parliament.
SIRA also recently launched its new Allied Health Treatment Request (AHTR) form, which will replace the Allied Health Recovery Request (AHRR) form.
Developed by SIRA in collaboration with allied health practitioners and insurers across Australia, the new form aims to simplify the process for health practitioners to provide key information to insurer case managers. It comprises clear, expanded sections and uses standardised outcome measures to show treatment effectiveness and track progress.
Each section of the new AHTR form incorporates the principles of the Clinical Framework for the Delivery of Health Services.
The transition period from using the AHRR form to the AHTR form will end on Dec. 15, 2024. Beginning Dec. 16, only the AHTR will be accepted for approval requests.
SIRA urged health practitioners to use the transition period to update their systems and educate their teams about the AHTR form.
