Other roles in rehabilitation

What is their role?

An insurer’s (WorkCover Queensland or a self-insurer) job is to manage the claim, guide the return to work process and communicate with everybody involved. Part of their role is also to approve and pay for the costs of rehabilitation.

What are they responsible for?

The insurer will:

• look at a claim and decide whether it will be accepted or not
• support return to work as part of rehabilitation
• be responsible for making payments and working out if further benefits are to be paid, if a claim is approved
• help put together and maintain the rehabilitation and return to work plan, together with a worker and their employer and treating health providers
• talk to an employer, if needed, to make sure they meet their obligations
• keep in touch with everyone involved in order to monitor a worker’s recovery progress.

All insurers must have a rehabilitation and return to work program that has been accredited by the Workers’ Compensation Regulator. This explains how an insurer will help workers to recover and return to work after work-related injuries or illnesses or help them to maximise their independent functioning. It:

• outlines an insurer’s commitment to assisting workers to achieve the best possible outcome following a work-related injury
• explains how an insurer will facilitate early and safe rehabilitation and return to work, including the use of rehabilitation and return to work plans
• provides clear guidance to workers and employers.

Workers who are referred to an insurer’s rehabilitation and return to work program are provided with rehabilitation and return to work services and support appropriate to their individual needs.

All injured workers with an accepted claim are referred to an insurer’s rehabilitation and return to work program, including workers who haven’t returned to work due to their injury at the end of their claim. For more detail on when a worker must and may be referred to an insurer’s ARRTW program, see Section 220 of the Act.

An insurer’s rehabilitation and return to work program should be either publicly available or provided to workers and their representatives on request.

View WorkCover’s rehabilitation and return to work program.

What is their role?

This can be an employer’s official rehabilitation and return to work coordinator or another employee tasked with the role, if an employer is not large enough to require one. This person will look after all parts of a worker’s return to work journey in the workplace.

What are they responsible for?

The rehabilitation and return to work coordinator will:

• be in touch with a worker early to talk about their injury or illness.
• work with a worker to put together a suitable duties program for their personal situation and needs.
• make sure a worker’s duties are within the limits set out by their doctor.
• work with any other person who is a part of a worker’s rehabilitation and return to work.
• stay in touch with a worker and their insurer to ensure everyone knows how a worker is getting on.

When does an employer need to appoint a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator?

Depending on their industry and the amount of wages they pay, an employer must appoint a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator (Section 149 of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025).

If required to be appointed, a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator must be based in Queensland, directly employed by their business, and suitably qualified and trained.

An employer must provide their rehabilitation and return to work coordinator’s details to their insurer and ensure the rehabilitation and return to work coordinator delivers on their functions.

Read more about employer obligations.

What is their role?

A worker’s direct work supervisor supports a worker when they return to work.

What are they responsible for?

A work supervisor will:

• help a worker get back into the team environment at work.
• make sure the plan stays on track.
• solve any problems that may come up, together with a worker and their rehabilitation and return to work coordinator and insurer.
• talk regularly with a worker about their progress and how they are feeling.
• look for ways to keep a worker engaged and feeling like they are contributing positively to the workplace.

What is their role?

Treating health providers are treating doctors, specialists, or any other health provider such as a physiotherapist or chiropractor. Their job is to provide the treatment a worker needs to get better, either when an injury first happens or on an ongoing basis through recovery.

What are they responsible for?

Treating health providers may:

• provide advice regarding a worker’s capacity for work.
• arranging appropriate treatment referrals and monitoring treatment.
• provide input regarding a worker’s rehabilitation and return to work plan, suitable duties program, and other workplace accommodations that may be required.

Only an AHPRA-registered medical practitioner (such as a treating doctor, surgeon or psychiatrist), nurse practitioner (for a minor injury) or a dentist (for an oral/dental injury) can provide a work capacity certificate for a worker for all periods of total or partial incapacity and treatment.

What is their role?

Workplace rehabilitation providers are individuals or organisations comprised of qualified allied health professionals, such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and psychologists. They are independent of other stakeholders and specialise in supporting the complex needs of workers and employers to achieve early, safe and sustainable return to work.

Usually, a workplace rehabilitation provider will be engaged by an employer or an insurer.

What are they responsible for?

Depending on the circumstances a workplace rehabilitation provider may assist with:

• mediation or facilitated workplace discussions where there are significant barriers preventing a worker participating in return to work. The provider delivers strategies to overcome the barriers, which may include beliefs about return to work, availability of suitable duties or psychosocial factors
• a workplace assessment to help an employer develop a suitable duties program or an insurer develop a rehabilitation and return to work plan
• workplace modifications and equipment that may support return to work
• physical or psychological functional capacity evaluations to estimate capacity for work or potential to return to suitable work
• job placement services including host placements for when a worker cannot return to their original workplace or when the return to work goal is to return to work with a new employer
• case conferencing with a worker, employer representative, insurer and treating medical providers to support an agreed direction for managing return to work.

An insurer can provide advice about the type of workplace rehabilitation provider most appropriate a worker’s situation. An insurer must initiate the referral to the workplace rehabilitation provider.

If a worker is not happy with the rehabilitation provider selected by their insurers, they can request a different one. An insurer must accommodate this request if it is possible to do so and provided it would not be likely to affect the worker’s rehabilitation and return to work. The provider chosen by a worker must be accredited and have the relevant skills, experience, industry knowledge and availability to provide effective rehabilitation services.

Employers can contact their insurer if they have questions about workplace rehabilitation providers, including relating to choosing their own provider.

A workplace rehabilitation provider does not replace the role of a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator or treating health providers (who are individual health professionals that provide treatment).