By Ted Smith, Senior Vice President of National Sales, Apricus
Apricus is saying goodbye to the term ancillary when it comes to caregiving in workers’ compensation. That’s because diagnostic imaging, physical medicine, durable medical equipment (DME), home health, and other services are often foundational to injured workers’ recoveries. They’re not secondary — they’re essential. These offerings are such an added benefit for managing a workers’ comp claim in a way that’s best for workers and for containing expenses, that these efforts are better regarded as specialty.
Specialty networks add up to an all-inclusive experience for the injured worker. That’s why Apricus is so exciting: It’s a whole new perspective on Specialty Networks.
What is the Apricus perspective? It’s the daily recognition that specialty services, when applicable, play a critical role in workers’ recoveries. These services can’t be thought of as secondary or even as comprising the spare change of workers’ comp costs. Indeed, spending in specialty areas including physical medicine, home health and DME comprises about 20 percent of workers’ comp medical costs. Coming in around (PDF) $7.5 billion a year in the last decade, specialty spending, by some estimates, surpasses that of pharmacy, which ranged (PDF) from $2.9 billion and $3.5 billion in recent years.
This already-sizable outlay comes as we could be poised for an increase in the types of injuries that specialty services are perhaps best equipped to treat. One of the innumerable ramifications of the pandemic is that some chiropractors are seeing increases in musculoskeletal issues and repetitive strain injuries. People aren’t working in offices as often and some workers are relying on ad-hoc setups at home that might not be as sound from an ergonomics standpoint as would be the case in an office.
This aspect of the pandemic fallout underscores that specialty services are anything but superfluous. In fact, they’re also notably hands-on. With personalized scheduling, making sure people are getting equipment and supplies, and home modifications, among other efforts, there are many ways to help the injured worker. In this regard, there’s a strong human aspect to the specialty networks world that allows for person-to-person care. It’s not always expensive, yet these interventions can make all the difference to injured workers.
Specialty services can make people feel cared for—to have everything they need provided for them so they can make progress in recovering. It can be something as simple as a box of gauze to something as complicated as modifying a home to accommodate a complex injury. It all makes a difference. Whatever the specialty networks need, Apricus is here to help light the path to recovery.
Register Here:
Webinar: Meet Apricus, a Specialty Network Reimagining How to Care for Injured Workers
About Apricus
Apricus is the combination of two industry-leading specialty networks offering durable medical equipment, diagnostic imaging, physical medicine, home health, transportation and translation and more for the casualty insurance market. www.apricusinc.com
About the Author
Ted Smith is the senior vice president of national sales for Apricus. With more than 10 years of experience in the workers’ compensation industry, Ted is an expert on managing specialty services, including diagnostics, durable medical equipment, and home health services, and is a contributing author to The Sounding Board blog.
Partner Post:
This is a sponsored post from WorkCompWire marketing partner Apricus.