By GEOFF CUMMING
Thousands of accident victims have been cut off by ACC in a three-year purge which critics say puts cost-cutting before care.
But ACC says the vetting of long-term claimants has weeded out shirkers and people no longer entitled to compensation under its tightly prescribed rules, which are set by Parliament.
In the past three years, 42,000 people receiving weekly compensation for 12 months or longer have come off ACC.
The number of new claimants who spend a year or more on ACC has fallen from 17,818 in 1996-97 to 11,500 this year.
More than 5000 were cut off after "work capacity" assessments, introduced in November 1997 amid projections of ballooning costs.
Thousands more have lost their entitlement after medical reviews which find that the pain the victim is experiencing is no longer caused by the original injury.
ACC says most people come off compensation because they are better and able to return to the workforce.
One woman who feels battle-scarred from her dealings with ACC is Denise Ferris, an Auckland naturopath who suffered partial paralysis and memory loss after a fall which damaged her spine while in Sydney on business last year.
The Mangere woman said she had a case manager who appeared not to believe medical evidence about her and spoke to her in a carping way.
She said that when she was due to have surgery for internal bleeding the case manager tried to stop the operation, believing she was in for orthopaedic surgery on her back.
ACC's falling caseload has helped the state corporation's surplus to soar to $817 million this year, enabling the reduction in employer levies and the return to lump-sum payments announced by ACC Minister Michael Cullen 10 days ago.
But its zeal in dropping long-term claimants is drawing increasing fire from judges, lawyers and academics - as well as upset claimants.
Lawyers say back injury and occupational overuse claimants usually lose their entitlements after medical reviews by "tame" specialists, who rediagnose their condition as "degenerative" or as chronic pain not specifically caused by their job.
They cite dozens of cases of people with permanent injuries who lose weekly compensation after work capacity tests identify a job they could theoretically do.
Examples include a man with two artificial hips and an artificial knee who was told he could be a fitness instructor, a man with a back injury sent for work as a car groomer and a Sri Lankan told he could be a court interpreter when there was no demand from the courts.
ACC spokesman Richard Ninness says the fall in long-term claimants - known as the residual tail - reflects its improved handling of claims and swifter rehabilitation.
"I don't think anyone is arguing that there should have been 30,000 people on ACC long term. ACC covers people for injury and there is no way we should expect that someone who hurt their back or their neck 10 years ago should end up on ACC forever ... That's just crazy.
"The idea that there's a pool of people out there who are hurt and who are simply being tossed off ACC is wrong."
The corporation's commitment to reducing the tail is highlighted in a memo tabled in a recent district court appeal. It disclosed that branch "key performance indicators" were heavily weighted towards exit rates and claimants' length of time on the scheme.
The November 1998 memo, to then ACC Minister Murray McCully, said staff salaries were linked to duration and exit rates of claims.
Mr Ninness says there is no direct financial incentive for staff to remove people from the scheme.
The memo said many claimants believed they were entitled to ACC for long periods because expectations had not been clearly set in the past. "These include people who ... have developed a 'victim mindset' which is difficult for them to shake."
But compensation specialists say the drive to trim the tail was sparked by the previous Government's move to open ACC to competition.
A former ACC official said: "The unfunded potential liability [of long-term and future claims] was scaring the pants off employers with the move to private insurers."
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Compo axed for thousands in ACC purge
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