This web page provides essential information for treatment providers about maintaining services for ACC clients following the Canterbury earthquake and during the national state of emergency. It will be regularly updated, so please check the page frequently to remain up to date with the latest information from ACC. If you have any urgent concerns or need further information, please call the Provider Helpline on 0800 222 070.
We understand you will be busy seeing patients who have been affected by the earthquake. We know it may be difficult, but would appreciate you following existing processes where possible, including getting people to complete ACC forms. You may also lodge earthquake related claims via email to dunedin.registration@acc.co.nz or fax 0800 844 850.
Also, read the guidelines for how ACC can help with a mental injury (PDF 30K).
Process changes
Certifying time off work
Please don’t forget incapacity should be as a direct consequence of your patient’s injury. If the incapacity relates to a health condition, or the patient no longer has a job to return to, it is inappropriate to provide an ACC medical certificate. We can, however, help your patient to link to assistance available from other agencies.
New hearing aid battery ordering process
Since the earthquake, clients who no longer have access to their order forms (and who may no longer be in Christchurch) have been asking audiologists to supply them with batteries for their hearing aids.
We would like to thank audiologists for helping out, and advise them that a temporary hearing aid battery ordering process has been implemented which should ensure clients get their batteries quickly. This will negate the demand for audiologists’ supplies.
Under the new process:
- if a client asks an audiologist for batteries, the audiologist should contact ACC on 0800 101 996 and advise the client's name, battery type, number of packs and the client's temporary delivery address.
- ACC will immediately process the order to the supplier Propharma, which will despatch the batteries the same day. Clients should receive delivery within a maximum of two working days.
Cover for people who have developed a mental injury from the earthquake
It is likely that following the 22 February earthquake, some people will contact their doctor distressed and upset about what they have experienced. For most people, symptoms will resolve over time with help from their family and friends, and contact with support services. However, those with persistent and severe symptoms may have developed a mental injury.
ACC may be able to provide cover for a mental injury caused by the earthquake, in one of two situations:
- the client has developed a mental injury as a consequence of the physical injuries they have received (eg a person has suffered a depressive disorder as a result of the physical injury they’ve sustained, and the effect it will have on their life). Please complete the ACC5778 Mental Injury as a Consequence of Physical Injury report (DOC 127K), or
- the client has developed a mental injury after experiencing/witnessing the earthquake while they were at work in paid employment (eg a person witnessed someone trapped in their building as they were running outside during the earthquake, and suffered a mental injury as a result of that experience). Please complete the ACC5774 Work-related Mental Injury report (DOC 147K).
In either case, if you assess a client as having the signs and symptoms of a mental injury, please complete an ACC45 as per normal, as well as the reports noted above.
Payment for extra HCSS/Community Nursing services
ACC would like to thank Home and Community Support Services and Community Nursing providers for delivering services to clients under such difficult circumstances.
Requests for additional service approvals should be made through our call centre on 0800 101 996, as soon as possible. Providers must state the dates that the actual services were provided/claimed, and explain why these services were required above the approved allocation. If approved by ACC, a revised purchase order will be issued.
Given the difficult traveling circumstances in Christchurch, ACC will also pay actual travel expenses. Providers should invoice for actual mileage and/or travel time as part of normal invoicing in accordance with the terms of your Contract with ACC.
No penalty for earthquake-related injuries
Christchurch employers won’t have to pay loadings on their levies for injuries to workers caused by the February Canterbury earthquake.
Under ACC’s existing regulations, employers who had staff injured or killed in their workplace during the Canterbury earthquake of 22 February could have their Work Account levies increased as a result. The declaration by Minister for ACC Nick Smith of the earthquake as an ‘adverse event’ for the purposes of ACC experience rating, however, means that the experience rating of employers in Christchurch will not be affected by claims for injuries resulting directly from the earthquake. Claims for work-related injuries should still be lodged as work-related.
“Applying experience rating in these circumstances is unfair and that is why an exception needs to be made,” Dr Smith said.
Providers who are able to lodge claims should proceed as normal. Read the Minister’s full media release.
Lodging claims
Assistance for visitors to New Zealand
ACC provides 24-hour, seven-days-a-week injury cover for everyone in New Zealand, including visitors. This cover removes a person’s right to sue for compensation for personal injury incurred while in the country.
When making a claim on behalf of an overseas visitor, please ensure you capture their New Zealand contact details as accurately as possible – especially if the client is travelling around the country. It is also helpful for us to identify any language assistance they require, so we can arrange for an interpreter to help them communicate with us.
Depending on the client’s situation we may be able to help with:
- further treatment costs
- prescription costs
- other entitlements where the injury is more serious.
ACC can’t provide assistance outside New Zealand, or cover things such as emergency travel home or travel for a relative. These should be covered by private travel insurance.
For more information on how ACC can help visitors to New Zealand, see the fact sheet ACC5736 – Getting help if you're injured visiting our country (PDF 169K).
Consequential conditions not generally covered
Several GPs have asked whether ACC can provide help for patients who have suffered from such conditions as cardiovascular or cerebrovascular episodes that have emerged since the Canterbury earthquake.
Generally, ACC’s legislation does not cover these conditions. However, there are two exceptions. Cover may be available for clients where the episodes are caused by treatment injury; or where they are caused by the application of abnormal or excessively intense physical effort or strain when performing employment tasks.
So, for example, a fire-fighter who climbs a stairwell and collapses as a result of a heart attack may be covered, but someone who succumbs to the stress of being in an earthquake would almost certainly not be covered. GPs are asked to bear this distinction in mind when considering whether to lodge a claim.
Services
Concussion services available for ACC clients
As people focus on getting through the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquake there is a possibility that people with injuries involving concussion may not yet have sought treatment.
As services are re-established and lives begin to return to normal, it is possible that the impact of injury will begin to set in and people will realise they may need help.
GPs are reminded of ACC’s concussion service and advised to refer clients who present with mild traumatic brain injury or post concussion syndrome.
If you believe your client fits the criteria for these conditions, please refer them to ACC using the ACC883 Concussion Service referral form (DOC 133K). ACC will then supply this information to a provider who will facilitate the help the client needs.
Just to recap, concussion (often known as mild traumatic brain injury) is a technical term used, more commonly nowadays, in general medical contexts. Frequently defined as a head injury with a transient loss of brain function, concussion can cause a variety of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. There does not have to be an observed loss of consciousness.
In post-concussion syndrome, symptoms do not resolve for a significant period after a concussion and may occasionally be permanent. Symptoms may include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, anxiety, memory and attention problems, sleep problems, and irritability.
Support/counselling services for people affected by the earthquake
If you believe your patients would benefit from support and counselling services, please see Support & counselling services for people affected by the Canterbury earthquake (DOC 94K).
Additional counselling hours for sensitive claims clients affected by the earthquake
ACC is making additional counselling hours available for sensitive claims clients whose treatment was affected by the Christchurch earthquake. For information about what ACC is offering and what you need to do, see the information for ACC registered counsellors.
Contacts
Important contact information
We appreciate that communications can be difficult for vendors and providers at the moment. Here is some advice on communicating with ACC:
- For those who want to email rather than fax reports, assessments etc., use clinical.notes@acc.co.nz
- Otherwise, please feel free to phone us about Christchurch claims on 0800 101 996.
Information updates
To help vendors and providers keep up to date with all the latest information on working with ACC during the national state of emergency, please:
- regularly check this page for information updates
- look out for special editions of ACC News
- call the Provider Help Line on 0800 222 070.
Last updated: 29 April 2011