Great Risk Management Technique with Bad Name – Doc In A Box
This Great Risk Management Technique known ass Doc in a Box deserves a better slang term. The Five Keys To Workers Comp Savings that I wrote 25 years ago have as their key savings component – medical control.
Even in states that do not have medical control, non-agenda injured employees will usually ask their employer a medical practitioner they recommend for treatment.
Establishing a medical treatment network before an accident happens is one of the best ways to save Workers Comp $. This was the first note I ever wrote to myself on how to save WC $. You may have seen posts and articles where a walk-in clinic is referred to as a doc-in-the-box.
That is such an unfair term for the easiest and highest return on investment post-accident risk management technique in workers comp. Many walk-in clinics are very industrial-minded and will perform applicable drug testing. I saw one post on LinkedIn where the author thought that walk-in clinics kept treating injured workers as a “churning” process.
In my opinion, nothing is further from the truth. The one main consideration I like about walk-in clinics is they have no personal involvement with the injured employee. A family doctor may have brought the injured employee into the world.
I have seen hundreds of medical notes where a family physician will write the employee completely out of work and not even consider that there may be light-duty jobs available.
Walk-in clinic office managers can usually even ask where you want you to have your injured employees referred if they warrant more extensive treatment. I have not seen very many opioid prescriptions from walk-in clinics.
This scenario is also applicable to California MPN’s and other states that require a panel of treating physicians.
The bottom line is the extra cost of not using a medical treatment network = 400%. I have an example that I use in presentations that traces the medical treatment of how a $350 medical only claim turned into a claim that was settled for a total cost of $475,000 in 1994 dollars. I still see similar files today.
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