Development of a Computational Policy Model for Comparing the Effect of Compensation Scheme Policies on Recovery After Workplace Injury

Abstract

Introduction The direct comparison of real-world workers’ compensation scheme management policies and their impact on aspects of scheme performance such as health and return to work outcomes, financial sustainability, and client experience metrics is made difficult through existing differences in scheme design that go beyond the factors of interest to the researcher or policymaker. Disentangling effects that are due purely to the result of policy and structural differences between schemes or jurisdictions to determine ‘what works’ can be difficult. Method We present a prototype policy exploration tool, ‘WorkSim’, built using an agent-based model and designed to enable workers’ compensation s..