Reforming the workers’ compensation process for occupational lung disease among miners in South Africa: an efficiency study of claims assessment

Abstract

Purpose The large burden of silicosis and tuberculosis (TB) in the South African mining industry, coupled with an under-resourcing of the compensation agencies responsible for certifying occupational lung disease, have resulted in serious backlogs. This work aimed to measure the efficiency gains from triaging occupational lung disease claims using claim type, years of mining exposure and computer aided detection (CAD) to save on scarce medical adjudicators. Methods During 2020, the compensation authority started to triage claims for TB and those of miners with < 10 years of service to two-person panels instead of the four-person panel plus radiologist used previously. Efficiency gain was calculated in medical person-units saved and reduction in delays. Different service thresholds predictive of silicosis were simulated, as well as the impact of pre-classification of chest X-rays with CAD using different combinations of sensitivity and specificity. Results The new triage system saved 20.3% in person-time units and reduced delays by 10–20 days. Without CAD the greatest efficiency gain (28%) was projected from dispensing with a mining service threshold and routing all non-TB claims to the small panels at the outset. Simulation of four different CAD sensitivity/specificity combinations yielded efficiency gains of 18.2–36.1%, with 31.1% judged the most realistic. Use of sensitivity of close to 100% would not be feasible because of the very low resulting specificity. Conclusion Pre-adjudication triage of claims at the compensation agency is capable of saving a substantial proportion of adjudicator time and reducing certification delays. Additional efficiency gains are achievable by referring all claims to small panels to begin with and improvement of CAD performance for this ex-miner population.