Former government worker’s compensation cut off after he had 1206 remedial massages

EX-government worker has his last taxpayer-funded massage after a tribunal found he didn’t need to be compensated for regular rub-downs.

A FORMER government worker who hurt his back on the job more than 30 years ago has had his last taxpayer funded massage after more than 1200 rub-downs on the public purse.

The Canberra man, now 78, was employed as a security guard at Old Parliament House in 1984 when he sustained a back injury while shifting furniture.

It was accepted at the time that the back injury — lumbago pain — he was left with and prevented him from working ever since, arose “out of, or in the course of, his employment”, and that government insurer Comcare would have to cough up for his treatment.

But now a tribunal has decided that remedial massage, one of the key treatments the former security guard was receiving for his pain, would no longer be covered.

The ex-security guard took the matter to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia after Comcare contacted him in July 2016 raising doubts about the “therapeutic benefits” of the 1016 remedial massages he had received to that date.

“Given the amount of massage received, it is reasonable now to conclude that any claimed therapeutic benefits is doubtful, accordingly I can’t be satisfied that ongoing massage can still be considered as reasonable,” a letter from Comcare, presented to the tribunal, stated.

The man sought to have compensation for his massages continue, saying his GP supported “ongoing remedial treatment”.

“I accept that over the years I have had many remedial massages, and I accept that they do not resolve the underlying compensable injury,” the man argued in a letter dated 12 July 2016. “But what the remedial massage does is to help me cope with the consequences of the injury, namely the impact of the injury on my mobility (and helps manage pain).”

He claimed other treatments, including a rehabilitation exercise program, “did not assist me at all”, and maintained the only treatment that did help was remedial massage.

The man asked Comcare to review its decision, but the insurer stuck to its call to discontinue compensation, noting the man had received 1206 massages over the 19-year period to the date of determination.

“The number of treatments you have had, and the period of time over which you have received them, are relevant in my assessment as they demonstrative massage treatment equates to long-term passive therapy,” a representative said. “Furthermore, the medical evidence supports that the treatments have provided you with temporary symptomatic relief and function between sessions only.”

Comcare decided ongoing massage treatment could “no longer be reasonably justified”.

When the case came before the tribunal in December, doctors called by each party gave conflicting advice over whether or not the workplace injury still existed, and whether the massage was effective in treating it.

While the man’s GP supported ongoing remedial treatment, a doctor who Comcare called to testify before the tribunal said the injury had “likely resolved” and that the pain an discomfort the man still experienced “was, most likely, a combination of age-related lumbar spine disease and the effects of Diabetes which he had (been) suffering from since at least 1996”.

In reviewing Comcare’s decision, the tribunal set out to determine whether the massage treatment was obtained “in relation to the injury”.

In a decision published by the tribunal earlier this month, deputy president John Sosso decided the injury had “resolved itself”.

Taking into account that the man had been able to “play gold on a regular basis”, and medical evidence suggesting “the aggravation caused by the workplace injury dissipated”, Mr Sosso determined: “The massage treatment obtained by the Applicant is not medical treatment obtained in relation to his compensable injury as that injury at some time after 1984, but certainly before the reviewable decision, resolved itself.”

Originally published as Former government worker’s compensation cut off after he had 1206 remedial massages