As professional service firms, one of the most significant costs for Workplace Rehabilitation Providers (WRPs) is the cost of wages associated with the allied health professionals required to effectively deliver occupational rehabilitation services. Accordingly, wage growth pressure adds a significant burden to operating costs for WRPs. For this reason, annual indexation methodology should consider wage growth pressure to ensure the incremental increases in fees and rates fairly take into consideration wage growth variation and the consequential impact on WRPs and their ability to attract and retain allied health talent.
Further, health professionals within WRPs have higher demands and expectations placed upon them in comparison to other health sectors, and as such, a wage premium is required to attract and retain staff. Individuals with workplace injuries who require more medical treatment and biopsychosocial support, are those who have historically been referred to WRPs. In doing so, the services provided are highly coordinated, goal-driven, evidence-based and timely, ensuring care and spend is effective and outcome-based. This is one of the roles of WRPs in workers’ compensation scheme.
The technical and specialised requirements of supporting workers who are suffering complex trauma, for example, require the proven skills of health professionals who are appropriately trained, and with a commensurate fee to reflect this.
ARPA strongly recommends that all workers’ compensation fees are:
- gazetted via legislation / regulation AND
- consistently applied every year using the same methodology, either CPI or wage price index (either nationally or locally) or a combination of both.