Here are some notes from a voicemail and a subsequent conversation I had earlier this week with an orthopedist from Florida. He had emailed me to ask permission to use some slides from my presentation entitled A New Paradigm for Worker's Compensation & Disability Benefits System: The Work Disability Prevention Model. I gave it at the Florida Summit on Preventing Needless Work Disability last summer.
I asked him to tell me what, if any, changes he had seen since the work disability prevention (WDP) approach had been put in place. I read him these notes afterwards, and he said I got it right.
He said: "I didn't enjoy workers comp before because we could never achieve the results with work comp that we do with our other patents. This approach that you and Jerry Fogel are advocating is right down my alley. The main thing that makes it more satisfying is that patients come in with a different attitude and approoach than the normal work comp patients -- from the way they treat the staff at the front desk through seeing the doctor and going to therapy. Now they know what the rules are, what their roles are, they have been educated before they come in. OptaComp has told them "We're going to take care of you, and send you to a great doctor who will make sure you get the care you need and can get back to work soon." (Work comp patients in other programs already know the "tricks of the trade" when they come in, but I don't see this with the OptaComp ones.) In one year, we have only had one work comp patient in this program who has had an attorney -- in comparison to prior years when we would see 25% - very impressive."
"Thank you very much for your contribution / this presentation. Your slides comparing the assumptions under the old claims management model vs. the new work disability prevention model hit it on the nailhead! I am very happy with the approach, very happy with outcomes. Have been practicing sports medicine approach for over 13 years, so this has been an easy transition for me. But now I enjoy taking care of work comp patients, because we have better results, the patients are happier, and everything seems to flow much easier."
[Dr. Tod Northrup, DO, practices orthopedics at the Florida Sports Medicine Institute with offices in St. Augustine and Jacksonville. He is describing the results that Blue Cross Blue Shield's OptaComp program has produced. Jerry Fogel from Imagine Clinical is a consultant to OptaComp.]
So, as I hear it, the thing that has made Dr. Northrup start enjoying work comp patients is that they are now coming in the door with their "fur lying down" because of the more positive way they have been treated by OptaComp (and probably their employer since the OptaComp program has involved a lot of employer training, too.) He likes this new model -- which is balm for my little soul.
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