9th May 2007 - ACC Payouts on medical mishaps.

An interesting discussion on National radio this morning over an ACC payout for medical misadventure.

Recent publicity has been given to a case over on the West Coast where a person made an ACC claim for a lost leg, amputated because of a botched knee replacement operation. The claim was reduced by 35% because of what it deemed to be “a pre-existing condition”  (dodgy knee).

Apparently an almost identical situation happened some time ago and it was successfully challenged through the ACC disputes tribunal. The similar ruling was overturned and a full payout was made.   

The basis of the argument was that the person no longer had a leg above the knee, so any previous disability to do with the knee was no longer relevant. The other point made was that if the person had lost their leg in a motor accident, any pre-existing condition in the part of the leg which was removed would not be known and in virtually all cases, a full payout is made. The ACC spokesman on the program stuck to a line where he insisted that efforts were made to check out if there was any history of pre-existing conditions, but would not answer the question if medical records were accessed to ascertain this.

ACC has never appealed this decision and yet continues to apply the same formula for calculating medical mishaps.

The moral?  Beware of knee replacement operations. I wonder how many botch-ups there are that we never hear about.