Introduction

Explanation of terms

Section 0. Introduction

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Explanation of Terms

Active Claims

    An entitlement claim is "New" and becomes "Active" when an entitlement payment of at least 50 cents is made for the first time and it receives a net positive payment in the financial year. Counts of active claims are made at the end of a period. A claim will remain active until the end of the period unless no payment is received in previous 366 days.

Age

    Is at the time the claim is registered with ACC. For many accidents, particularly sensitive claims (see Section 13), there is a delay between accident and registration. The number of new claims in the younger age groups reflects the large number of medical fee only claims incurred by children, particularly boys. Many of these will not receive entitlements and will therefore not appear in the entitlement sections of this report. The charts exclude unknown age categories.

Back Injuries

    Prior to 1 July 1992, the only injury site code available for back injuries was ‘back/spine’. From 1 July 1992 two other codes have been available, ‘lower back/spine’ and ‘upper back/spine’.

Claims

    A claim is a lodgement by a person or care provider requesting that ACC assists through paying or helping to pay for medical, weekly compensation and/or rehabilitation costs associated with an injury. A person can have more than one claim

Cost

    The GST exclusive cost.

Duration

    Duration is measured as the time between the last entitlement payment made by ACC. Claims with payments made after 30 June 2008 have their duration truncated at 30 June 2008. The charts exclude unknown durations.

Entitlement Claims (Compensation or Rehabilitation Claims)

    Those claims that have progressed beyond the medical fee only claim listed above. Compensation and support for returning to independence may have also been required.
    A claim is deemed to be involved in compensation or rehabilitation if it has received Income maintenance, Death benefits, Vocational rehabilitation or Support for Independence. These claims were shown in the ACC publication Consequences as moderate to serious claims.

Financial Years

    All years in the tables are ACC’s financial years which run 1 July to 30 June.

Injury Type

    Only one injury type per claim is listed in this publication. There may be more than one injury type and the injury reported may not be the most serious one.

Location

    The charts exclude other and unknown location categories.

Medical Fee only claims

    Those claims where ACC has paid a health professional for medical treatment or service. About 85 percent of all claims are in this category and often involve only one or two visits to a health professional.
    A claim is deemed to be a medical fee only claim if it has received Medical, Dental Treatment or Counselling. These claims were also shown in the ACC publication Consequences as minor claims.

New Claims

    A claim is new when in the period the first payment is made.

New Sport Codes in 2004

    In July 2004 ACC defined new sport codes for ATV, Fitness Training / Gym, Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Roller Blading, Scooter, Snowboarding, and Swimming Beach/Pool/River. Therefore accidents for these sports will only start in 2004, and will gradually increase as the new codes are phased into use. It’s anticipated there will be a corresponding drop in the categories they were previously amalgamated in.

Serious Injuries

    Claims in the serious injury portfolio represent a small number of intensively managed claims often requiring 24-hour care. Many are the result of motor vehicle accidents. These claims were previously known as Complex Personal Injury (CPI) claims. Due to the long-term nature of these claims and the extended assessment period, most serious injury claims are Active.
    Fatal injuries are excluded from the Serious Injury tables and are reported separately in the Fatal Claims section.

Soft Tissue Injury

    Due to re-alignment of diagnoses, ‘soft tissue injury’ is now the most common accident diagnosis. This includes sprain, strain, contusions, and internal injuries. Minor category diagnoses with the suffix ‘(not stated)’ have an unknown sub-classification. For example, in the major category ‘Burn (burn, corrosive injury, scald)’, ‘Burns (not stated)’ indicates it is unknown if the injury was a burn, corrosive injury, or scald.

© 2008 Accident Compensation Corporation

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