Caring Team at West Auckland Physio Provide ACC Claims Free of Charge Services

West Auckland Physio has recently introduced an ALL ACC Claims FREE Of Charge service for Physiotherapy and Chinese Acupuncture, with no referral necessary. They are an accredited ACC provider, certified by HDANZ and provide a wide range of services, including one to one physical training, for both injury rehabilitation and sports conditioning. One of the reasons for providing this free service is that they found that patients were delaying or not finishing their treatments as they were simply unable to afford treatment. This usually resulted in ongoing pain and slow recovery, often affecting their ability to return to work. Their philosophy at West Auckland Physiotherapy has always been to make treatment accessible for everyone and, after much consideration, they have decided the way to do this is to provide ACC treatments to patients FREE of charge.

It goes without saying that they will still be providing quality care and will continue to be open seven days a week. All their physiotherapists are very experienced, with post graduate qualifications and the friendly team at West Auckland Physiotherapy provide a supportive and professional atmosphere, working with their patients to restore mobility, strength and function so they can return to their normal work and leisure activities, in the belief that this teamwork approach promotes early recovery and a faster return to full mobility and pain free function.

This decision by West Auckland Physiotherapy was made subsequent to the announcement by ACC in 2009 that they had decided to cut payments to physiotherapists, so that visiting the physio would, in future, cost patients each visit. This means the reduced income is expected to be supplemented by accident victims, and they will be billed for each visit to a physiotherapist, following ACC's client co-charging scheme. This includes people who are injured at work, which means they will pay for part of their medical costs though both they and their employer both pay ACC levies.

These changes obviously mean that many people who need treatment can no longer afford it, and if a patient doesn't get early treatment for an injury, recovery can take much longer and their health may suffer in the long run. There has been no set charge and it has been left up to individual physiotherapy clinics to decide how to charge patients, although each clinic will have to charge at least enough to make up for the reduced subsidy. The charge is therefore expected to be between $10 to $30 per treatment.

For more information please visit the website at www.westaucklandphysio.co.nz .