RTW Matters has extracted the data from the last five RTW Monitor reports and analysed the information on a jurisdictional basis.  As one of a series of publications covering the various jurisdictions, this review analyses Comcare's results.  Our analysis has sought to highlight trends and comparison between the jurisdictions, below is the Executive Summary of Comcare's results.  Click on the icon below for the full results.

Executive Summary

Return to work results

Comcare continues to perform above the national average for RTW results, with RTW rates of above 9/10 and durable RTW rates of more than 8/10.

However, there has been a substantial drop in durable RTW rates over the last 12 months - from 88% to 81%.

The length of durable RTW (the time back at work for people at work when interviewed) for Comcare workers was around 50 days longer than their national counterparts. This has steadily increased over the last four years, meaning Comcare workers are returning to work earlier.

The proportion of employees returning to work and remaining on modified duties at the time of the interview has increased by nearly 5 percentage points over the last 12 months.  

Over the last four years there has been a steady and sustained drop in the proportion of employees reporting pain / injury as the reason they did not feel ready to return to work.

Return to work influences

Comcare workers are more likely than the average Australian worker to have a RTW plan, and are also more likely to be given assistance in following the plan.

However, around 1/3 of Comcare workers can identify a person who made it harder to RTW, which is higher than the national rate. Comcare workers were very close to the Australian average when it came to perceptions pertaining to workplace culture but were more likely to perceive their employer as having clear policies regarding RTW.

In general, the perceptions of Comcare workers about who helped RTW were close to the national average. However, nearly 60% of Comcare employees advised their main supervisor was helpful in return to work, which is slightly higher than the national average, and more than 90% of Comcare workers said that their doctor helped them return to work, which is more than ten percentage points higher than the national average.

Since 2005-06, Comcare workers have found it increasingly difficult to find the information they need to make a claim.  They have also found lodging a claim increasingly complex, so that now those who find claim lodgement simple and those who find it complex are split almost 50/50.

Around 80% of injured Comcare workers not working at the time of interview cite injury related reasons for not working.

Rating of customer services

More than 55% of Comcare workers interviewed had had contact with their insurer in the last three months, a figure higher than the national average of around 47%. On all insurer performance measures with the exception of 'advice about rights', Comcare workers rated their insurer lower than the national average (but gave marks of between 3/5 and 4/5), with communication, advice about the claim and understanding the situation rated most poorly.

Rehabilitation services

Comcare workers are more likely than the national average to participate in rehabilitation, and their rehabilitation is likely to cost approximately $1000 above the national average.

Previous claim experience

Since 2006-07 there has been a steady rise in the proportion of Comcare workers who had a previous claim, and in 2008-09 this figure had risen to almost 1/2 (49%). In 2009-09 nearly 40% of Comcare workers with a previous claim had time off work because of that earlier claim, nearly ten percentage points above the Australian average and Comcare's own rate of the previous year.