Workers’ compensation has often found itself at the centre of contention in Australia, with the pendulum swinging wildly between scheme protectionism and the interests of the individual worker, rarely benefitting either to the full extent. For David Matthews, Asia-Pacific sales director at Duck Creek, it’s an issue he believes the insurance industry still hasn’t been able to grapple with entirely effectively, despite the progress that has been made.
“The obvious issue is that you’ve got a situation where there’s a debt of entitlement,” explained Matthews. “As an insurer, how do you convince a worker that it’s in their best interest to get back to work? From an evidentiary perspective, there’s tons of research to support the importance of work in people’s lives – but from a worker’s perspective, it’s very easy to feel as though the insurer isn’t acting in your best interest.”
Matthews is at pains to point out that the issues causing this situation are multifaceted; many of the people working within the space are associated with mutual funds and, accordingly, are working for the betterment of the wider community. As Matthews explains, it’s critical for workers’ compensation providers to be looking for efficiencies while also aiming to deliver the best possible outcomes for their affected clients.
“First response is really critical,” said Matthews. “So many problems arise at the point of first contact; a lot of the time the client will have never had to deal with these organisations, and now, when something has gone wrong, they feel totally at their mercy. Organisations really need to be sensitive to their needs in the moment.”
There are a variety of ways that this can be actioned, Matthews noted. The first, he believes, is simply down to speed.
“One of the simplest ways to demonstrate that the injured party can trust you is by working as quickly as possible for them,” said Matthews. “There’s too many horror stories in the industries already; when things go wrong, the outcome tends to be pretty ugly and driven by bureaucracy. You end up with a set of band-aids rather than addressing the original problem, and a client who doesn’t trust that the system works.”
Simple enough in principle, but how can it be best executed?
While Matthews doesn’t discount the importance of the human element to handle the sensitivities that will be unique to each case, he’s a staunch believer that technology can cut through much of the existing red tape.
“I think it’s fair to say that it’ll be a while before we have full-blown AI operating within the space, but we do already have tech that’s broadly applicable,” he said.
Matthews pointed to fraud as an example. While there’s a great deal of public and pop culture fuss over the prospect of workers’ compensation fraud, the reality is that it’s fairly minimal.
“Fraud is pretty well under control within the space,” said Matthews. “The tech we do have in operation at the moment gives us oversight, and it’s clear that fraud shouldn’t be the default mode of thought for an assessor. Obviously, patterns can change, and we always need to be reviewing the data at hand, but I think we can safely move away from approaches that are overtly hostile to clients. It’s not a model that should have existed in the first place.”
Similarly, Matthews believes that tech can cut through issues surrounding legislative requirements versus the immediate needs of the client.
“If you’ve just been involved in a serious workplace accident, the absolute last thing you need is a manual’s worth of paperwork to fill out,” said Matthews. “We need to be looking at technology such as voice recognition to be able to complete these tasks quickly and efficiently, rather than burdening people with additional suffering.”
Accordingly, Matthews remains positive about the future of the workers’ compensation space.
“There’s certainly issues, but there’s a lot of opportunities,” he noted. “I think in the tech sector we’ve really got a chance to give workers’ compensation insurers the oxygen they need to do what they do best – helping people recover and get back to the workplace. We always want to be pushing for better outcomes for everyone.”
