Using A Medical Advisor To Communicate with the Treating Physician

How the Medical Advisor Communicates with the Treating Physician

Your company’s  medical advisor may, from time to time, need to address specific health issues in regard to an injured employee’s case.

Accompany your adjuster’s  letter with a signed cover letterfrom the medical advisor or director. Doing so results in more comprehensive and conclusive independent medical evaluation and examination (IMEs) reports.

1. Be sure  to include claim number and all relevant addresses and contact information on the letter.
2. Welcome  the physician to ask questions.

Be sure to ask  the independent medical evaluation physician (IME) to answer the following questions or types of example questions:

1. What is the patient’s present diagnosis and work status since it is X months since the original injury?
2. Has s/he  achieved maximal result?
3. Can s/he  perform the job as a painter (or whatever is the usual work task)?
4. Specifically,  please address whether s/he would have difficulty simply walking on a flat surface and going up and down a ladder?
5. Since the latter involves flexion and extension of the ankle, would the lateral sprain affecting primarily pronation and supination really interfere with performance?
6. If the worker  uses an ankle support, would it  be sufficient to allow work performed as a painter?

While Workers’ Comp Kit expects you to request and receive work ability forms, some injury cases may need more specific follow-ups. (workersxzcompxzkit)

For example,  this may be necessary when documentation states:  ”Patient may have trouble walking.”  and your company needs to know how long the worker can walk for, at what inclination and duration. These specifics can be determined by the independent medical examiner but may require some slight prodding to get documented.

Author:  Robert Elliott, J.D. Executive Vice President, Amaxx Risk Solutions helps companies reduce workers’ comp costs 20-50%. He can be reached at Robert_Elliott@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com

WC Best Practices Quick Check: http://www.workerscompkit.com/intro/
Workers’ Comp Kit Books & Guides: Corner.advisen.com/wcbooks
WC Calculator: www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com/calculator.php
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©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Communication with Employees, Coordinating Medical Care, Implementation and Rolling Out Your Program, Medical Issues, Workers Comp Kit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.