Australia’s fragmented health-related income support systems have been urged to collaborate, to reduce costs for insurers and improve outcomes for workers and the economy.

Monash University’s Cross Sector Project estimates $37.2 billion was spent on income support in 2015/16, including employer-provided sick leave, social security, workers’ compensation, life insurance and motor vehicle accident compensation.

“There are a lot of inefficiencies at the moment,” Monash’s Insurance Work and Health Group Director Alex Collie told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“Services are duplicated, processes are duplicated, and that adds costs.

Working more collaboratively would smooth the process as people move through different parts of the system, leading to improved health results and broader savings and benefits.

“If we can get people back to work quickly and help them to recover from illness and injury, costs to insurers will be less, whether that be a workers’ comp insurer, life insurer or social insurer such as Centrelink,” Professor Collie said.

“It will also have other benefits to society. There is an enormous public health win here if we can get these systems functioning together in a more collaborative way.”

The research report, released last week, was completed for the Collaborative Partnership – a public and private sector scheme to improve work participation that was unveiled at the Insurance Council of Australia Forum in March.

Excluding employer-provided entitlements, an estimated 786,000 people unable to work due to ill health, injury or disability received income support from a Commonwealth, state, territory or private source in 2015/16, totalling about $18 billion.

The report outlines potential service delivery gains from improved data sharing and better alignment in areas such as GP certification and work capacity assessments.

See ANALYSIS.