Citation

Connelly LB. J. Orthop. Sports Phys. Ther. 2017; 47(7): 503-508.

Affiliation

Queensland Brain Institute and Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Orthopaedic Section and Sports Physical Therapy Section of the American Physical Therapy Association)

DOI

10.2519/jospt.2017.7533

PMID

28622485

Abstract

Synopsis Whiplash is a compensable injury in many jurisdictions, but there is considerable heterogeneity in the compensation arrangements that apply across jurisdictions, even within some countries. These schemes have, however, been subject to a common set of inter-related concerns, chiefly concerning the incentives, behaviours, and outcomes that may arise when financial compensation for injuries is available to injured parties. This article provides a non-technical overview of some of those concerns through the lens of economics: principally, insurance economics and health economics, including related subsets such as information economics and agency theory, as well as economics and the law. It notes that because it is generally infeasible to randomise the treatment (ie, compensation) via trials, analyses of observational data are necessary to discover more about the relationship between compensation and health outcomes. This poses the analytical challenge of discovering causal connections between phenomena from non-randomised datasets. This is possible, but challenging, to do: the article calls for further research that enables convincing, causal, interpretations of such relationships via the careful analysis of rich observational datasets with modern econometric methods. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, Epub 16 Jun 2017. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7533.

Language: en

Keywords

WAD; economy; insurance; law; litigation