How to provide maternal birth injury services
We estimate maternal birth injuries will add around 28,000 claims to the 2 million which are lodged with us each year. That means ACC providers can potentially expect a general increase in demand for their services.
Learn how to register to provide services, lodge a claim for a birthing parent and use the right Read Code.
On this page
Register to provide services
Health providers interested in providing services to our clients and who aren’t registered with us should consider doing so. The process is easy and can be done in a few simple steps.
How to lodge a claim
ACC-registered healthcare providers can lodge a claim within their scope of practice for a birthing parent if they believe they will benefit from further treatment, rehabilitation, and support for their injury.
An ACC claim can be lodged at any time, but it should be for a diagnosed injury rather than the patient’s symptoms.
Providers need to complete and submit the ACC45 form to lodge a claim, but there are some specific details to include for a maternal birth injury.
These are:
- when the injury happened as the date the birth occurred
- the correct read, SNOMED or ICD10 code
- 'MBI’ or ‘maternal birth injury’ in the Additional Injury Comments field in Part D
- midwives can leave Part E (Work Capacity) blank. This section can only be completed by doctors or nurse practitioners.
Sample ACC45 form for a maternal birth injury (PDF 140 KB)
Learning module for maternal birth injuries
Submitting an ACC45
The ACC45 form can be sent to us in the same way as normal. For most this will be through a Practice Management System (PMS) or one of our other digital channels.
Midwives working in a hospital or birthing centre should check with the facility for guidance about the most appropriate way to lodge claims. Public hospitals have these systems and processes already in place.
Midwives working in the community or facility without existing processes to lodge claims need to register with us as a healthcare provider before they can submit a claim. This allows us to process these claims through our system.
For now, midwives lodging claims outside of the hospital system will need to send us a paper version of the ACC45. Filling out the ACC45 fully and accurately will mean we can make faster cover decisions for our kiritaki (clients). For simple claims, we would expect to have a decision quickly, but for more complex claims we may need to ask for more information.
More information about this process is available below. The completed form can either be scanned or a good-quality photo emailed to us individually.
Email hamilton.registration@acc.co.nz
These can also be sent to us by post.
If you're in Northland, Auckland, Waikato or Bay of Plenty:
ACC, Claims Assessment and Client Support
PO Box 952
Waikato Mail Centre
Hamilton 3240
If you're in Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui, Hawke's Bay, Wellington or the South Island:
ACC, Claims Assessment and Client Support
PO Box 408
Dunedin 9054
Using the right code
When you lodge your claim you’ll need to include the correct diagnosis code which matches the patient’s injury.
For many, this will be the read code.
Common read codes for maternal birth injuries
Some practitioners will use SNOMED or ICD10 codes.