Implementation plan for better health outcomes
SIRA has published an implementation plan to drive better health outcomes and value-based care for injured people in the NSW workers compensation and CTP schemes.
The plan takes action on the findings of the SIRA Healthcare Review, which aimed to ensure that injured people have access to the right healthcare, at the right time, for optimal recovery and return to work.
Recommendation 36 of the McDougall Review was for SIRA to develop an accelerated plan for implementation of the findings.
This implementation plan introduces 21 initiatives that SIRA will undertake to drive improvements using value-based care. The initiatives are divided into 4 streams:
- Stream 1: Measure health outcomes and costs and improve data quality
- Stream 2: Support enhanced clinical practice
- Stream 3: Streamline administration and reduce leakage
- Stream 4: Develop scheme capacity in value-based healthcare.
Several initiatives within the streams have been already implemented, including:
- publishing a healthcare costs and outcomes data dashboard
- the creation of a Back Injury Clinical Advisory Group that will pilot a model of care for lower back pain with select primary health networks in 2022
- acting on the results of a health provider fee benchmarking report and committing to the removal of loadings on surgical procedure fees from 1 July 2022
- piloting an accredited value-based healthcare course for SIRA staff in partnership with the University of New South Wales
- establishing a medical payments working group with workers compensation and CTP insurers to improve billing and payment practices in the schemes.
SIRA will commence implementing the remaining initiatives in the implementation plan by March 2023.
An extensive consultation and co-design process involving injured people with lived experience, clinicians, insurers, employers and their representative groups informed the development of the plan.
SIRA will continue to work together with all scheme participants to implement the initiatives and will regularly report on its progress