Have you heard of an impairment rating desert? It turns out that location can mean everything for someone with a workers’ compensation claim. Watch to find out what this means and how it can affect injured workers.
Automation Is Coming to Workers’ Compensation: Could Your Job Be Done by a Robot?
“We are coming closer to the point where not only cashiers but surgeons might be at least partially replaced by A.I.,” said former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a recent interview.
The rapid integration of automation in all industries is undeniable. The surprising news is that there are many jobs that have traditionally required an expert—a highly trained human professional—that can be better performed by robots, at least in part.
Workers’ compensation is no exception. As the sun sets on the age of the expert and rises on the age of the machine, workman’s comp is a critical example of a field that will benefit from automation.
Continue reading Automation Is Coming to Workers’ Compensation: Could Your Job Be Done by a Robot?
RateFast Welcomes Phil Walker
New Podcast
Over at the California Work Comp Report podcast, we’ve just released an episode featuring workers’ compensation attorney Phil Walker.
Phil will be joining us for more podcasts as we explore the intersection of law, medicine, and patients’ needs in work comp.
You can check out the episode called “Attorneys in Workers’ Comp: A Historical Perspective” here, and you can also read a complimentary blog post.
About Phil
Phil has over 30 years experience in several different workers’ compensation systems from Canada to Mexico to the Rockies.
He is an expert on the AMA Guides, 5th edition (which California currently uses for evaluating and rating work injuries). Phil helps employers figure out if doctor’s work-comp reports are correct.
For more information about Phil and his services, you can visit his website here.
Attorneys in Workers’ Comp: Who they are, what they do, and when to get one
Roles that Defense and Applicant Attorneys play in Workers’ Comp: A historical perspective
Many workers’ compensation claims today involve an attorney at some point. The work comp system, when it came to the United States from Germany, was supposed to be simple, transparent and efficient—a system without attorneys or judges, that focused on three simple steps:
- Medical treatment
- Patient recovery
- Patient’s return to work
Any permanent impairment would be measured by a doctor with a simple formula, and would tell you how much that injury was worth.
Permanent disability, on the other hand, was originally used to measure the amount of machines the worker could no longer operate. The amount of compensation that the injured worker received would then come from that loss.
So, how did work-comp become one of the most complicated areas of law?
Why are defense attorneys involved in today’s workers’ compensation system? There are two primary reasons why attorneys need to get involved:
- Suspicious circumstances – Employees sometimes try to obtain compensation that they’re not entitled to.
- Denied medical treatment – Employees sometimes do not receive the treatment that they are entitled to.
This, in turn, results in:
- Increased cost of the claim.
- Increased amount of medical treatment ultimately provided.
And, finally, that an injured worker seeks out an attorney. This can then further result in additional body parts being added to the claim. Therefore, providers should always be asking themselves:
“How do I get this case accurately resolved, in the fastest amount of time?”
When this doesn’t happen, lawyers get involved.
Related Reading
What exams are included in the RateFast application?
In order to guarantee accurate impairment ratings and truly complete work-comp reports, the Ratefast app guides users through various medical examinations according to the requirements of the AMA Guides.
RateFast asks questions, prompts you to indicate abnormalities, and requests that you take measurements based on your patient’s injury. A set of these questions and prompts for measurements are called exams.
RateFast currently has customized exams for injuries to the following body parts:
- AMA Guides 5th edition cervical spine exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition thoracic spine exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition lumbar spine exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition shoulder exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition elbow exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition wrist exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition thumb exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition index finger exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition middle finger exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition ring finger exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition little finger exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition pelvis/hip exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition shoulder exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition knee exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition ankle/foot exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition toe exam
- AMA Guides 5th edition skin exam (for various skin areas)
Related Reading
If you’re a current RateFast user and you want to learn how to access the body part exams, then check out this article in the How to Use RateFast – Basic Tasks section.