We have been living in the dark ages of workers’ compensation.
Physicians, claims adjusters, and attorneys have been providing care, approving treatments, and advocating for benefits without the proper tools or direction.
Traditionally, the only way to understand the status of an injury is to rely on the physician’s individual interpretations and the patient’s subjective complaints.. Stakeholders often have conflicting opinions and expectations about the work status, the necessary treatment, the impairment rating, the correct interpretation of the AMA Guides, and, ultimately, the value of an injury.
If you’re in workers’ compensation, then you understand the delays that are caused when claims adjusters deny care for treatments that the physician believes are necessary, or when providers send insurance carriers inaccurate impairment ratings, or when QMEs are brought into a case. You know how these delays can impact the recovery of the patient and the day-to-day tasks of everybody involved in the workers’ comp system.
Amid so many competing opinions and interests, it quickly becomes difficult to discern who is right—or how anyone could ever be right.
But we no longer need to work in the dark. After all, we live in the golden age of information technology.
We can dispel the frustration and confusion associated with workers’ compensation by using systems that methodically and consistently consider every factor in a workers’ comp claim, and then produce an accurate model of the injury’s rate of recovery and the best course of treatment.
Such a tool is called an injury mapping system.
A geographical map is created by methodical exploration and systematic measurement of the territory. Likewise, an injury map is created based on objective data about an injury, and gives the work injury claim a direction and a duration.
With an injury map, you know the treatment path that an injured worker should walk down and for how long. Like a GPS, an injury map guides the user through the terrain of an injury while making the best choices available.
Whether you are a physician, a claims adjuster, or another stakeholder, an injury mapping system allows you to:
- Make educated choices about effective treatments, work status.
- Track trends in the recovery process.
- Write reports that create a complete picture of an injury.
- Automatically generate requests for authorizations.
- Account for every relevant law and adjustment of the AMA Guides.
- Determine apportionment and adjustments for pain.
- Calculate whole person impairment on the fly.
RateFast is the only California workers’ compensation injury mapping tool. Join now for free and find your way.