Media investigations have exposed concerning allegations against the federal workplace insurer, Comcare. 

Comcare handles occupational health and safety and workers compensation claims for Commonwealth workers. 

When a case is being assessed, the claimant is often sent for an independent medical exam (IME), which helps define the claimant's ongoing compensation. 

But an investigation by the ABC has found that this process is littered with doctors who are themselves abusive, obstinate, and reliant on the government handing them IMEs as a major part of their income. 

In some cases, people who claim to have been bullied at work find themselves being bullied by the very doctor they are trying to prove their psychological harm to.  

Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesperson Tim White says Comcare may be sending long-term claimants, especially those suffering from psychological injuries, to as many doctors as it takes to cancel their claim.

“IME's are used too often, especially on longer-term claims,” Mr White said.

“I have experienced a lot of clients being sent to several different doctors during the course of their claim.”

He said people should be able to go to their own doctor. 

“More informed reports could be obtained from the treating doctor. Less money could be spent on paying for medical reports and more money put into trying to get the worker back to work,” Mr White said.

“Psychological injuries in my view are adversely dealt with under the Commonwealth scheme.

“Those injuries have a much higher threshold to meet for the claim to be accepted compared to a physical condition. Why should there be a different and more onerous test for workers injured psychologically?

“The scrutiny these claims go through just further traumatises the worker often.”

Comcare has denied systematically sending patients to multiple doctors or doctors more likely to reject their claims. However, when pressed for data that would prove or disprove this, Comcare said the data “did not exist”.