No pain relief for umpire
Theft hurt, says Jones
GMHBA has defended its refusal to provide extra assistance to a member of 33 years who forked out $1650 to replace a stolen remote control for the bionic implant that manages his chronic back pain.
Paul Jones was umpiring at Geelong West on June 23 when thieves raided the umpires’ rooms, taking the remote that had allowed him to be active member of the community as a GDFL and BFL official.
The implant had been programmed to allow the former chartered accountant to keep active.
Mr Jones was forced to use magnets to turn off the device, leaving him in pain for a fur- ther week until a new remote arrived.
But the biggest shock came when the 54-year-old, who has defied predictions he would never run again, sought support through GMHBA’s ex gratia process and was knocked back for payment.
Mr Jones said he felt it was “a bit rough” he could not access a few hundred dollars considering the amount the organisation spent on sponsorship of Geelong Football Club.
“I know it’s not really in their scope to pay for things like that, but given I’d been with them for some time and this was a piece of medical equipment they had originally paid for, I did think they may cut me a bit of slack and make a contribution towards paying for the unit,” he said.
“If they didn’t have a system set up to do it, I wouldn’t worry about it, but the fact they do have a system set up to do it means they do make payments outside policies.”
A GMHBA spokesman said the ex gratia process was a discretionary program no insurer was obligated to offer and was “based on clinical best practice and what is in the best interests of all members”.
“The nature of Mr Jones’s case, being the theft of a medical device, does not satisfy the clinical criteria required to meet an ex-gratia case,” he said.
“We sincerely value Mr Jones’s loyalty to GMHBA, however, due to legislative requirements, we are not able to take membership tenure into account when deciding ex gratia cases.
“Mr Jones’s case went through the appropriate avenues of review, and we believe it was treated fairly.
“We wish Mr Jones success in the recovery of his medical device, and hope to be able to continue to provide him with health insurance and care services in future.”