02 May 2019
David Lawson
[FYI request #9965 email]
Tēnā koe David
Your Official Information Act request, reference: 0053994
I refer to your email of 1 April 2019, in which you have made a request under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act), for information regarding Initial Medical Assessments and Court decisions.
Please find our responses to each of your requests (in
italics) below.
Initial Medical Assessments
Please provide copies of all documentation (including but not restricted to ACC policy and ACC
employee training documentation.. etc) associated with the Corporation's obligation to an ACC client
in arranging/facilitating the provision of an initial medical assessment for ACC's clients that was in
existence as at the 18 February 2012, together with any and all new iteration's that came into effect
through until 31 December 2014.
Please ensure that the official information provided under OIA Request 1 specifies/clarifies the
following;
1. The prerequisites that are required prior to an ACC case manager commencing the process of
arranging for an Initial Medical Assessment to be conducted.
2. The minimum and maximum timeframes after the ACC client became injured for an Initial Medical
Assessment to be arranged by an ACC case manager when an ACC client is in provision of weekly
compensation entitlements.
3. Complete details of what information a case manager is required to provide to the initial medical
assessor prior to an ACC client being reasonably required to attend an initial medical assessment, or
an initial medical re-assessment, and or to ensure that the outcomes of an initial medical assessment,
or re-assessment is safe from being legally challenged by an ACC claimant due to the omission of
substantive medical information held on behalf of the ACC client by the Corporation which has been
subsequently found not to have been provided to he initial medical assessor prior to an initial medical
assessment or re-assessment.
Please find attached ACC’s Initial Medical Assessment policy for the period specified in your request. The
only content change we made during the period was the fol owing addition (in the Referrals sections),
which was made on 2 September 2013:
• ensure that for every medical assessment referral you make (IMA, VIMA, MCR) a complete list of all
the documents sent with the referral is loaded in Eos. This list will be available to the client and will
be provided, with the referral to your assess. See Export document list to an Excel spreadsheet.
The policy includes the rules relating to eligibility for this type of assessment, and the information that
case managers must provide to the assessor. There are no specific timeframes as to when a client can
undergo an initial medical assessment.
OIA Ref: 0053994
Court decisions
I respectfully request confirmation on an annual basis, for the past 10 years as to the number of
District Court cases that have been found in favor of an ACC Client when the Corporation has fol owed
the recommendations of an initial medical assessor and made decisions based on this information,
and an ACC client has challenged the Corporation for having omitted, or the Corporation having failed
to have had provided an initial medical assessor substantive medical records held by the Corporation,
which has lead to a District Court Judge requiring ACC to either
(a) conduct further medical assessment/ investigations on behalf of the ACC client with the
substantive medical records that had been withheld or omitted by ACC from an initial medical
assessor in the first instance, fol owed by ACC supporting any treatment and rehabilitation
entitlements for the ACC prior to ACC being able to arrange any further initial medical assessments
(b) being required to be placed in front of an initial medical assessor for a reassessment using the
information previously withheld and or omitted by ACC.
(c) In the cases where the District Court has not applied name suppression, nor withheld publication
of the District Court legal rulings for privacy records in the cases confirmed under OIA Request 2 (a)
and (b) above, please provide the the fol owing information for each district court ruling in the
following form;
[ACC Client's Name] V Accident Compensation Corporation [Year of ruling i.e 2014] [the applicable
NZACC Number] [the date of the District Court Ruling] from the NZLI New Zealand Accident
Compensation Appeals - ACC Appeals website.
We decline this request as court decisions are publicly available. This decision is made under section
18(d) of the Act. You can search through District Court decisions on the New Zealand Legal Information
Institute’s website at
http://www.nzlii.org/.
Please note that ACC is not able to readily identify court decisions to the level of detail specified in your
request. Even if court decisions were not publicly available, we would likely have to decline your request
under the substantial collation and research refusal grounds under section 18(f) of the Act.
Questions or concerns
If you have any questions, you can email me at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800
802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Emma Coats
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
Page 2 of 2
Document Outline
