Workers Comp

[rev ronin]

Does anyone have a good resource or two for doing worker's comp care?  Circumstances have kind of thrown me into the deep end on this one.  The medicine doesn't scare me, but the paperwork, and interactions with workers' attorneys and claim managers are new territory to me.

 

Also, what do you do when you inherit a case or two where you doubt that there ever was any merit to the original claim in the first place?

 

I get that this is probably going to vary a LOT from state-to-state, but anything helpful would be appreciated.

[cc56]

I work urgent care which also does Occ Med.   Most of our stuff is physicals for DOT and pre-employment.  We do get injuries and have to see people.  I wonder what would be a good resource too, I just call up one of our SP who is residency trained Occ Med for complicated patients.  For us we document why we think that it is not work related and inform the company. I have seen this once.  That is the interesting part with workers comp, HIPPA applies but doesn't.  Being in Occ Med kind of sucks, you cater to the company a lot.  I liked work comp more as a specialty because you were past that and did what you thought was best.  Here I have to answer for why something is "OSHA recordable".  Why did I give a steroid which is OSHA recordable VS OTC dosing of Ibuprofen first?   

[wilso2ar]

I just document, document, document.  What the patient tells you and any objective evidence you can.  I look at it as my job to help patient and do the best I can for them.  I DO NOT fill out any functional ability without an FCE (functional capacity evaluation) from a PT that I trust.  If the time away from work is longer than expected I will come out and ask them if they want to go back to work and document the answer.  Usually these things sort themselves out.  The ones that are not really all that debilitated get cut off after an IME (or a few) I fight for the ones where I have objective evidence to support them.  Most workers are good people that want to get back to work.  Unfortunately, some are not. 

[rev ronin]

Makes sense, but in my case I've inherited dozens of ongoing cases, averaging 5+ years since DOI. There's really no opportunity to get up to speed on simple cases.  What tactics would you advise to do right by all these patients?  I neither want to do the wrong thing, nor delay their care.

So far, I'm dealing with each case as the patient comes in for a monthly visit, a very reactive stance that doesn't find undone work until the patient brings it up.  I wonder if there's a better way.

[Reality Check 2]

If you are in the state of Washington, there are multiple resources within the department of labor and industry including field nurses, some of whom have been with the agency for over 20 years and know how to get through the old, stale, stagnant cases.

I personally have had a great deal of experience with labor and industries. I've learned the workings of the independent medical exam, specialty referrals, narrative reports, and trying to bring the case to some sort of fruition.

The paperwork can be daunting. The weird thing is that They will pay you for filling out every form. There are codes for every type of paperwork, phone call, email, secure message on their state website.

you can personal message me if you have specific questions.

 

AKA Reality Check with cat avatar - my old login is toast and the site owner has never responded to my email. The password reset on this website doesn't work and the contact me screen is a blank white sheet. OOPS