Insurance companies have an ulterior motive for wanting to rehabilitate workers and get them back to work sooner, according to plaintiff law firm, Maurice Blackburn.
In a direct counter to claims by the insurers, superannuation funds and the Financial Service Council, Maurice Blackburn has told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services it does not trust the motivations of the major insurers in pursuing the issue.
It said that it believes there must be other, less altruistic reasons at the heart of the insurers’ position.
“Insurance is primarily a financial product. The primary purpose of insurance is financial protection, not to fulfil a rehabilitatory or medical role,” the Maurice Blackburn submission said. “From this we can extrapolate that the role of the insurer is as a provider of financial protection, not as a provider of rehabilitation or medical services.”
“The primary function of private sector insurers is to derive a profit. In our experience, life insurers do not recommend initiatives that will jeopardise this. It is in their financial interest to avoid payment and, in our experience, they are willing to place pressure on claimants to achieve this outcome,” it said.
“Maurice Blackburn concludes therefore that there must be other reasons that private sector insurance companies are seeking greater access to this process and that the life insurers’ seemingly altruistic desire to assist with expediency in the claims process should be treated with caution.”
The Maurice Blackburn submission urged the Parliamentary committee to “seek to understand the implicit motivations driving the proposed change, and the potential consequences on scheme clarity, the purity of medical opinion, and the peace of mind of ill and injured claimants”.
