By the end of the year the DWC plans to have a new 12 point plan in order to control medical costs.  This is directly correlated with adjusting what will be submitted to Utilization Review.  Many of the treatment requests submitted to UR include MRIs, CAT scans, and physical therapy.  Occasionally if a doctor is not around to respond to UR, they automatically deny the treatment request.  This adds additional money and costs that could be avoided with the 12 point system.

The idea is only unreasonable requests will go through Utilization Review.  In the end costs will go down and UR will become a streamlined process unlike the difficult and costly system is it currently.

For more info go to:https://www.workcompcentral.com/members/index.php?fa=news&id=6c2ccbfa15185dfa068be4fe0d05c411g&state=CA&CFID=17580966&CFTOKEN=89730080

On Friday, a study was relaeased that medical costs have been on the rise by at least 9% since 2007.  The reforms in 2002 ansd 2004 were intended to decrease the amount of money spent on workers’ compensation claims including medical expenses and permanent disability settlement amounts.  Although these costs remained low for the first few years, there has been a jump specifically in medical costs believed to be caused by hospital services.

https://www.workcompcentral.com/1/news/news_print.htm?token=CE606B93C40AD889C9ED4173E5AC7040B148687E6B23C00CF64E61CB40004553&state=CA&id=fc1dab8efacd558723c09d92b14c1bfag