Leaders Speak

By Rick Wyche, ATP, Director, Business Development ATF Medical Cheap can be very expensive. All too often adjusters forget this when selecting durable medical equipment (DME) for injured workers with complex needs. Instead of thinking broadly about the person’s medical condition, challenges, and goals, they focus on how little they can spend on some specific… [Read more]

By Shawn Deane, General Counsel, Ametros In Part Iof this series, the benefits of professional administration were covered from the perspective of the claimant / injured Individual, their attorney and Medicare. In this installment, points of view will be addressed from payers and structured settlement entities / brokers. Payers Insurance carriers and self-insureds (payers) have… [Read more]

By Shawn Deane, General Counsel, Ametros Professional administration involves the use of a professional third-party to manage the portion of an injured individual’s settlement funds attributed to future (post-settlement) medical expenses, inclusive of a Medicare Set Aside (MSA). Specifically, in the Medicare and MSA realm, professional administrators are defined as, “corporate entities administering [MSA] funds… [Read more]

By James Sliwa, DO, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, and Senior Vice President, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) In rehabilitation, a lack of sensitive and objective outcomes measures makes it difficult to predict how and where patients will achieve the best, fastest outcomes. As a result, the true value… [Read more]

By James Sliwa, DO, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, and Senior Vice President, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) Rehabilitation, unlike other medical specialties, has no equivalent to an objective blood test or an X-ray to help measure or direct the results of treatment. Current assessment tools are not well-equipped… [Read more]

By Dr. Mitch Freeman, Pharm.D. Senior Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer, Mitchell Is your clinical program running at its best? When there are so many changes to track, from clinical and regulatory to business perspectives, it can be easy to overlook certain factors that could help optimize your program. As we continue into the… [Read more]

By Dr. Mitch Freeman, Pharm.D. Senior Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer, Mitchell Are you seeing an increase of naloxone prescriptions in your workers’ compensation claims? This may become more common as states move to encourage the co-prescribing of naloxone with opioid prescriptions. As the U.S. continues to make headway in battling the opioid crisis,… [Read more]

By Michelle Despres, PT, CEAS II, CETS, National Product Leader for Physical Therapy, One Call Patient-centric – it is a topic we love to talk about in this industry. We want to do everything in our power to set injured workers up for success. What can we do to provide the most holistic care? What… [Read more]

By Michelle Despres, PT, CEAS II, CETS, National Product Leader for Physical Therapy, One Call No two physical therapy networks are the same. Quality should always be valued over quantity or price, but what differentiates a best-in-class network from a sufficient or merely adequate one is the ability to provide injured workers with timely access… [Read more]

By Michael Samogala, RN, CRRN, CBIS, Director of Education, NeuLife Rehab In light of the recent and continuing focus regarding brain injury, as well as the specialized care and post-acute rehabilitation that may be required, a brief discussion describing an outcome-based neurorehabilitation/neurobehavioral rehabilitation program’s components and process may be beneficial to the workers’ compensation provider.… [Read more]