Policy

The underlying principles for the approval of medical treatment as being reasonable to obtain  are that treatment:

• be necessary to improve any conditions for which the client has accepted liability
• do no harm
• be of a reasonable cost (considering the cost of treatment against the expected gains)
• be clinically effective (considering the available evidence)
• be accepted clinical practice (considering the current professional opinion).

• All requests for treatment must be accompanied by a current referral by the treating doctor.
• Treatment will only be approved for conditions for which the clients has accepted liability.
• Treatment Authority will exist for clients to receive Chiropractic/Osteopathic/Naturopathic treatment, as long as there is a valid referral for that treatment, and it is provided for accepted condition/s only.
• Naturopathic treatments will only be approved where the same clinical effect cannot be gained with treatment offered by other registered allied health practitioners.

Note: The Department of Employment has issued a revised Specified Diseases and Employment Instrument under ss7(1) of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988. The Instrument came into effect on 1 October 2017.

Due to the commencement of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA) on 12 October 2017, the Instrument is now also part of the DRCA.

Cases have arisen where those persons attending Defence premises with the intention of enlisting in the ADF have been required to perform physical exercises (running, obstacle course etc.) to prove a standard of fitness acceptable for enlistment. These candidates for ADF enlistment, if injured during those preliminary tests, are not covered by the SRCA because they are/were not employees at the time of the injury. Their remedy lies instead in a civil action against the Commonwealth for negligence.

Until 2005, smoking-related claims for compensation were denied on the basis that smoking (and associated disease or illness) was not reasonably incidental to a claimant's service in the ADF.  Until the change, it was policy that the decision to smoke or not to smoke was ultimately a matter of personal choice for the member.

Sequelae are not formally defined by any of the compensation Acts, nor is it a term used elsewhere within the text of those Acts. The term refers to medical conditions which represent a medical consequence of a previously accepted injury or disease, but is other than a simple worsening of that same condition. The main feature of sequelae is that they are different from the original condition (i.e. a sequela has a separate diagnosis). It is a new condition that has arisen out of the effects of that original condition.

Similarly, occasions have been known where civilian employers of reservists have (as an ADF public relations exercise), been invited to attend a reserves camp and sample those activities that their employees undertake in their Reserves role. Even though this event may involve the civilian employers voluntarily placing themselves under the control of an ADF officer, they are not ADF employees and any injury is not covered by the SRCA. Once again, their remedy if injured lies with a civil action for negligence against the Commonwealth.