The financial performance of South Australia's worker's compensation scheme has improved on the back of a series of reforms.

Return to Work SA chair Jane Yuile released the figures this week, which showed that the scheme formerly known as WorkCover now holds about $370 million in net assets.

It is a big improvement from this time last year, when it had more than $1 billion unfunded liability.

The authority says the turnaround came from a $426 million improvement to work outcomes and claims management, a $992 million one-off boost from the State Government's legislative reforms, plus $228 million for strong investment return.

But the overhaul was not without its victims, as workers were cut from the scheme unless they were “catastrophically” injured.

Under the new legislation, injured workers with a less than 30 per cent whole-person impairment or psychological injury now have their compensation cut after two years.

It has led some in the legal community to express concern that severely injured workers could end up on disability pensions.

But South Australian businesses have welcomed the change, which drove down the average premium for employers from 2.75 per cent to 1.95 per cent from July.

Economists estimate the new scheme will save businesses around $200 million a year.