A.C.C. ‘telling falsehoods about doctors’
By
DEBORAH McPHERSON
The Accident Compensation Corporation had been “orchestrating” a campaign against the medical profession, the delegates at the New Zealand Medical Association conference heard in Rotorua at the week-end.
The president of the association’s Auckland division, Dr Tom Marshall, said the corporation had spread false information about A.C.C. abuses by doctors and physiotherapists. “It is an orchestrated campaign against us, but compensation will now not be paid out until the corporation OKs it.”
The association’s chairman, Dr Lewis King, said the corporation had put out media releases before and after the Budget, which said the scheme was being ripped off by the public, and the medical profession. “We think they must be attempting to set the stage to decrease A.C.C.” While the new regulations announced in the Budget meant the corporation would also pay out to sickness as well as accident victims, it would now also be able to determine who was eligible to receive compensation.
The association was concerned about the implications for patients, said Dr King. Under the new regulations, the corporation might decide only to pay out half the cost of medical fees, or only 10
per cent of private hospital fees, or that accident victims might have to wait a month before they were eligible to receive compensation. The A.C.C. had already distorted the health system through its inequities, said Dr King. At the moment a person who became wheelchair-bound through a debilitating illness could only claim a sickness benefit, while a person injured through a car accident could “rightly” receive more financial help from the State as well as benefits to help modify the home for the disability. Accident compensation had also been poor in helping people rehabilitate through paying for occupational therapists to encourage people back into the work force.
“We thought that allowing A.C.C. to be paid out for sickness would mean money to the sick would increase not decrease, but now they are talking about reducing the levies as well.
“The corporation should be honest with the population and just say it is likely we will reduce what you are entitled to.”
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Press, 21 August 1989, Page 7
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357A.C.C. ‘telling falsehoods about doctors’ Press, 21 August 1989, Page 7
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