Queensland workers’ compensation scheme statistics show that, from 2020 to 2021, more than 94,000 statutory claims were made across the state, up 4.9 per cent from the previous year.
Commenting in an article in The Brisbane Times today, Luke Connelly, of the University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, says while it is important for insurers to rule out fraudulent activity within claims processes, it can be re-traumatising for people each time they are asked to be reassessed.
“Some people can find [the process] humiliating because some practitioners ... make individuals feel like they’re not believed, that everybody thinks they’re lying,” Connelly says.
“They get one opinion from one doctor and then they’re made to go to another doctor for a different opinion.
That can be testing for people mentally because you’re already suffering from an insult to your health, then also not being believed, when you’re trying to get something done about it, is probably a compounding problem.”
