This study investigates how injured workers in Australia experience general practitioner (GP) care following compensable injury. Their GP care is funded by two distinct systems: Workers’ Compensation and Medicare. While operated separately at a structural level, these systems intersect in general practice, creating complex administrative dynamics for patients and treating clinicians. 

Key Findings 

• Through in-depth qualitative interviews, the research reveals a highly fragmented healthcare landscape. 
• Injured workers preferred a whole-person approach to care through a single GP managing all health conditions. They reported challenges in finding GPs willing to take on workers’ compensation cases due to system complexity. 
• Workers arranged their care for other health conditions around administrative complexities of compensable injury. Their care experiences varied with which GP they saw. 

Recommendations

• To prevent recovery and return-to-work delays, scheme administrators must streamline administrative processes for primary care providers. 
• Better cross-system integration and policy visibility over how Medicare and workers’ compensation overlap in practice are essential to reduce administrative friction, prevent care gaps and better support worker outcomes.