Each RateFast user has a User Level. Your User Level determines how much information you can access in your patients’ workers’ compensation report.
This article describes how to assign a user’s User Level, and what each User Level means.
Continue reading What Are the Different User Levels in RateFast?
As of October 1st 2015, U.S. medical providers are required to use ICD-10 codes instead of ICD-9 codes.
Although there are more than 70,000 new codes (many of which feature an overwhelming amount of specificity) we believe that this transition can—and should—be simplified with the help of medical software.
Continue reading How to Simplify ICD-10 Codes Using RateFast
Our sister website www.pr4report.com recently created a downloadable FAQ about telemedicine in workers’ compensation—or “Occupational Telemedicine.”
If you’re in workers’ compensation and you’d like to learn more about how you can use telemedicine—online visits—to benefit your practice and patients, then just this might be worth reading.
A lot of RateFast members use telemedicine in conjunction with RateFast to great effect. Contact us for more information about how telemedicine can benefit your medical practice.
If you’re a medical provider in the U.S., then you know that on October 1st 2015 we will be switching from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes. There are more than 100,000 new codes.
A lot of medical workers are concerned that the transition might be rocky, but RateFast users need not fear.
If you’re a current RateFast user, then you’ll recognize these exams from the “Objective Findings” section of your Doctor’s First, PR-2, and PR-4 reports.
All the information in the Objective Findings examinations should be, well, objective: any other medical provider should be able to examine the patient’s injury and come back with the same results.
Some parts of an Objective Findings examination require you to take measurements using various pieces of equipment (such as goniometers and inclinometers) or to perform different types of tests (such as distal neurovascular exams and monofilament testing).
Click here for a full list of the body part exams that are currently written into the RateFast application.
If you’re a medical provider in workers’ compensation, then sometimes your patients might want legal representation.
When your patients ask, “Should I get an attorney?” then we recommend referring them the Disability Evaluation Unit.
To learn why, listen to our podcast on the subject here: “Attorneys in Workers’ Comp: A Historical Perspective” (released September 3rd, 2015).
The DEU has offices in the following locations:
| Anaheim 1065 N. PacifiCenter Drive Anaheim, CA 92806 (714) 414-1803 |
Oxnard 1901 N. Rice Avenue, Suite 200 Oxnard, CA 93030 (805) 485-4423 |
San Francisco 455 Golden Gate Avenue, 2nd floor P.O. Box 420603 San Francisco, CA 94142 (415) 703-5030 |
| Bakersfield 1800 30th Street, Suite 100 Bakersfield, CA 93301-1929 (661) 395-2723 |
Pomona 732 Corporate Center Drive Pomona, CA 91768 (909) 629-6288 |
San Jose 100 Paseo de San Antonio, Room 223 San Jose, CA 95113 (408) 277-2024 |
| Eureka * Satellite office Ratings to be sent to Redding |
Redding 250 Hemsted Drive, Second Floor, Ste. B Redding, CA 96002 (530) 225-3179 |
San Luis Obispo 4740 Allene Way, Suite 100 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 (805) 596-4157 |
| Fresno 2550 Mariposa Mall, Room 2005 Fresno, CA 93721-2280 (559) 445-6427 |
Riverside 3737 Main Street, 3rd floor Riverside, CA 92501 (951) 782-4345 |
Santa Ana 605 W Santa Ana Blvd, Bldg 28, Room 451 Santa Ana, CA 92701 (714) 558-4113 ext. 6749 |
| Long Beach 300 Oceangate Street, Room 325 Long Beach, CA 90802-4460 (562) 590-5017 |
Sacramento 160 Promenade Circle, Suite 300 Sacramento, CA 95834 (916) 928-3150 |
Santa Barbara * Satellite office Ratings to be sent to Oxnard |
| Los Angeles 320 W. 4th Street, 9th floor Los Angeles, CA 90013 (213) 576-7426 |
Salinas 1880 North Main Street, Suites 100/200 Salinas, CA 93906-2204 (831) 443-3222 |
Santa Rosa 50 “D” Street, Suite 420 Santa Rosa, CA 95404 (707) 576-2374 |
| Marina del Rey 4720 Lincoln Blvd 2nd floor Marina del Rey, CA 90292 (310) 482-3868 |
San Bernardino 464 W. Fourth Street, Suite 260 San Bernardino, CA 92401 (909) 383-4522 |
Stockton 31 East Channel Street, Room 417 Stockton, CA 95202-2314 (209) 948-3651 |
| Oakland 1515 Clay Street, 6th floor Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 622-2859 |
San Diego 7575 Metropolitan Drive, Suite 202 San Diego, CA 92108 (619) 767-2081 |
Van Nuys 6150 Van Nuys Blvd., Room 200 Van Nuys, CA 91401-3373 (818) 901-5376 ext. 5 |
Are you not sure how to use the RateFast Dual Inclinometer mobile app? then you’ve come to the right place.
In order to write workers’ compensation reports using RateFast, you first need to create a patient.
This article tells you how to add basic information about your patient into the RateFast system, so you can start writing workers’ compensation reports.
Continue reading How to Add a New Patient in RateFast
An impairment report without an inventory of the patient’s Activities of Daily Living (or ADLs, as we like to say) is like trying to drive to an unknown destination without a map. After all, how can you determine the severity of an injured worker’s impairment without understanding how his or her daily life is (or isn’t) affected?
If you’re a provider writing an impairment report such as a PR-4 report, then asking your patient about his or her activities of daily living is essential. If you’re a claims adjuster or an attorney reviewing an impairment report, keep an eye out for whether or not the physician has made note of the ADLs.
If you are examining a worker who has injured multiple body parts, then a separate ADL inventory must be performed on each injured body part. For example, if the worker has injured both her knee and her shoulder, then you should check to see how both her shoulder injury and her knee injury affect each activity.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s necessary. Here’s why:
If you, as a medical provider, assign a worker’s injury a very high impairment rating—such as 90% whole person impairment—then the claims adjuster for the claim needs to understand why. If you demonstrate that the injury has disrupted all of the worker’s activities of daily living, then the impairment rating is supported. But if you don’t mention the activities of daily living at all, then you might very well receive a phone call from the insurance company in short order.
Reports that lack mention of the complete ADL inventory should be carefully considered before the conclusions are accepted as valid.
If a reader of an impairment report is unable to understand how much an injury affects the individual’s daily life, understanding the reasons for arriving at the final whole person impairment (WPI) are nearly impossible.
Bottom line: If you create impairment reports, include a complete ADL inventory. If you’re a RateFast user, then you already know that our PR-4 report-writing system ensures that you ask about each activity for all body parts.
If you review impairment reports, insist that activities of daily living inventories are provided.
Muscle guarding is simply the body trying to avoid a painful stimulus. When irritable muscles are touched, they don’t like it and try to pull away.
A physical exam finding of muscle guarding is a gateway to a Diagnosis-Related Estimate (DRE) class II rating in the AMA Guides 5th Edition.
The AMA Guides 5th Edition in Chapter 15, The Spine, on page 382 defines “Muscle Guarding” as “a contraction of of muscle to minimize motion or agitation of the injured or diseased tissue.” Don’t confuse this with muscle spasm, which is an “involuntary contraction of a muscle or group of muscles.”
Associated finding may include loss of the low back contour (lordosis) and may have “reproducible loss of spinal motion.”
When documenting muscle guarding in an impairment report for rating purposes, it is helpful to the reader if comments on lordosis and actual measured spinal motion are provided. These comments also makes the observation more compelling.
When reading a report which includes the finding of muscle spam look for comments on lordosis and evidence of loss of spinal range of motion.
California PR-4 Reports are about reproducible observations and findings. Reports that are minimally supported may be more confusing than helpful, and lead to costly delay.
