ACC noted in its response that as part of their recent review of medical certification, they found that there is a lack of consistency and variable interpretation surrounding ACC’s current medical certification definitions. ACC recognizes that they need to ensure there is consistent internal and external messaging and set clear expectations around medical certification, recovery at work, and returning people back to their everyday activities as soon as possible.
ACC stated there needs to be a shift in thinking that a medical certificate’s sole purpose is around whether a client can return to work. Instead, medical certification needs to be seen as both an activity and recovery at work prescription, and an essential part of a health providers overall treatment plan.
For these reasons, ACC has been developing a new set of medical certification definitions that will better support early recovery at work. ACC’s hope is that these new definitions will go live early 2023.
As part of the implementation of these new definitions, ACC intends to provide updated educational material, provider webinars, printable supporting guides, updated learning modules, and proactive engagement with our key internal and external stakeholders.
As you will appreciate, we will be taking ACC’s information and turn it into a language employers can understand. It’s what we do so watch this space.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for our review on the New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme Labour wishes to introduce. Fair to say, we have some concerns with the proposal and with ACC managing it – especially when it cannot even manage to process its current claim load https://lnkd.in/gB3Gd8Vg
