Health & Family Insurance claim for accident

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Rockstar, 18th May, 2017.

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  1. Rockstar

    Rockstar Well-Known Member

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    Mrs R has just broken her leg while volunteering in Adelaide. )-:

    The volunteer organisation (not for profit charity) hired a venue to run the program for a group of participants.

    Can we make a claim and who do we claim against? The volunteer group or the hired venue owners insurance? Also, what can we claim for? She tripped over a rope which was installed by the hired venue.

    We have never been in this situation before so I would be interested to hear of your experiences.
    Thanks, RS
     
  2. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    Seriously?

    **** happens. Deal with it and move on.

    Unless someone (who should have known better) did something really dangerous and there are grounds for negligence - as opposed to just bad luck.
     
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  3. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    Such a "who do we blame?" society we live in today :(
     
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  4. Ed Barton

    Ed Barton Well-Known Member

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    Better call Saul
     
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  5. Marg4000

    Marg4000 Well-Known Member

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    You can only claim if negligence involved.

    If your wife was careless and tripped, then there is no claim.

    And what do you want to claim for? You will have to substantiate any claim, receipts etc., you can't just pick a figure out of the air. A simple accident is not a pot of gold, at best you may get some medical expenses paid after allowing for any rebates you have received.

    And it will probably cost you far more in legal fees than you are likely to get back.
    Marg
     
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  6. Rockstar

    Rockstar Well-Known Member

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    Thanks folks, There is no blame of negligence. It was an accident. As I said we have no experience in these things so not sure what to do. Maybe there is nothing to do but wear the costs.
    The Charity pays an insurance company every year for voluntary workers accident cover. Is that to just protect themselves or also to protect their volunteers from paying costs associated with accidents?
     
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  7. Biz

    Biz Well-Known Member

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    It's really sad. Seems every second radio or tv advertisement these days is for some kind of compo lawyer. What a society...
     
  8. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    You can talk to the charity and ask what the procedure is to make a claim on their insurance.

    Unlike the comments above to just wear it, personally I would not like to be out of pocket for medical expenses. The first step would be to ask the question.
     
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  9. BennEznElle

    BennEznElle Well-Known Member

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    Agree 100%. This is what Workcover insurance is for, accidents like this.
     
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  10. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    Good point actually - I wasn't thinking of it from a Workcover perspective.

    I tend to do all my volunteer work within community organisations where this isn't necessarily going to apply.
     
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  11. Marg4000

    Marg4000 Well-Known Member

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    In that case contact the charity, explain what happened and ask for advice. If the accident is covered then they will send you the appropriate paperwork.
    Marg
     
  12. Rockstar

    Rockstar Well-Known Member

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    Is that due to you not being "on the ground" Sim?
     
  13. BennEznElle

    BennEznElle Well-Known Member

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    In SA, Return to Work SA premiums (WorkCover) are assessed on a remuneration basis so for volunteers they wouldn't generally be covered. It would depend on what other liability insurances the organisation holds and they would likely need to specify volunteers being covered.
     
  14. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I don't understand your question?
     
  15. Rockstar

    Rockstar Well-Known Member

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    Do you do physical work for these organisations? ie: work where you could possibly sustain a physical injury.
     
  16. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    I would assume a venue charging for use would also have some form of commercial public liability cover too. Worth asking. Was the incident reported to the venue?

    The Y-man
     
  17. Rockstar

    Rockstar Well-Known Member

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    Yes, that's partly true though there is always different perspectives on blame and responsibility. In our case we are not blaming anyone since it was an accident. We have no desire to see the charity out of pocket and are willing to carry some financial burden to protect them from any losses if there are insurance excesses, etc. Having said that, I do have some expectation that they would wish to look after and protect their volunteers from significant financial loss. They apparently have a volunteer worker accident policy so we will follow this up and see what it may provide in assistance.
     
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  18. Rockstar

    Rockstar Well-Known Member

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    We had to request that an incident report be written and provided to both the charity and the venue owners. There was a witness to the accident who was also volunteering. Part of the difficulty has been that this seems to be the first major incident for the charity and there is no process in place to deal with it. As I said earlier, we also have no experience in such a process and how to find out our right to claim and, if so, what to claim.
     
  19. MTR

    MTR Well-Known Member

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    That makes sense, surely this is an avenue to investigate
     
  20. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I'm there in person on site and yes, accidents can happen.

    I'm not "employed" by these organisations - it is purely a volunteer capacity where I'm either on the management committee or involved in other areas of organisation.

    Out of curiosity, I might check the insurance policies of the various groups to see if they cover personal accidents (as opposed to public liability).

    I know Little Athletics Australia has an insurance policy which does provide personal accident insurance - I just checked the policy details and it covers only non-Medicare medical expenses only.

    From my understanding, it works like this:
    1. Medical expenses covered by Medicare are claimed via Medicare as normal
    2. Any "gap" where medical expenses exceed that covered by Medicare is not covered (might be covered by private health insurance?)
    3. For any non-medicare medical costs, if you have private health insurance, you must claim from that fund first
    4. Any remaining non-medicare costs not already covered can be claimed through Little Athletic's insurance policy up to a maximum of $10,000 per injury.
    There are also loss of income benefits (max $1,000 per week) for up to 104 weeks if unable to work.

    In the case of Little Athletics, all registered members, officials, coaches and so on are covered. I'm not sure if parents are covered - will need to double check that.

    I just include this by way of example - different organisations are likely to have very different insurance coverage.
     
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