Workers' Compensation

While I was on my rural outpatient placement (public sector), I had a patient who has worker’s compensation. It wasn’t until then I realized how little I know about the procedure of worker’s compensation.

The lady was a currently patient of my supervising physiotherapy for her wrist pain. I was asked to do an initial assessment and treatment for her LBP. During her subjective assessment, she reported that a heavy object had fallen onto her back while she was bent over to pick up things on the floor at her work place. She has been taken to ED and her Xray finding was NAD. Therefore she was covered by worker’s compensation. It wasn’t till then that I realize I don’t really know anything about how to deal with this type of situation. I only vaguely remember work’s comp patients are general seen by private physio and there is some paper work involved. Also the patients tend to recover slower due to diminished motivation. I have no idea what I need to do in a public setting. I asked my supervisor on that day who has been graduated for about 2 years. I was advised to get her company’s details. During my treatment with this lady, my supervisor rang the senior physiotherapist for further advice. After my treatment, the patient requested a brief summary for her doctor who will be organizing the worker’s comp insurance. So I wrote a summary of the assessment findings, possible structures involved, treatment delivered and future plan. As it was my last week of the placement, she was handballed to the supervising physiotherapist to be review the week after.
As we were finishing for the morning, the physio revealed that even it is a public sector (free for locals with or without referrals), we still need to bill the company because it is a worker’s compensation case. The cost will be a lot higher than private physios, the bill would be at least $500+ from the access of the service. For a usual case, the patient will be referred to private physio immediately, however this patient was a little more complicated as she has been accessing public physiotherapy treatment for her painful wrist.
I do not recall we covering anything about worker’s compensation at uni, ( I do have a terrible memory though). Does anyone have any experience with this type of scenario? Or have any suggestions/advices?