Employers Take Cues from Guide to High-Value Physicians

The director of a hospital-affiliated occupational health program told the NAOHP today that employers in her California market are starting to pay attention to advice contained in A Guide to High-Value Physician Services in Workers’ Compensation: How to Find the Best Available Care for Your Injured Workers. 

Which means that she and the program's clinical staff also are paying attention to employers' expectations.

While acknowledging that the physician workforce in the U.S. is not evenly distributed, the Guide advises employers to find the best available doctors by following these steps:

1. Identify potential candidates.
 
2. Determine which physicians meet criteria for basic suitability in terms of access, credentials and proficiency.
 
3. Look for high-value signals by learning all you can about a physician’s practice style and outcome metrics, if available.

According to the Guide, physicians who provide high-value services in workers’ compensation meet a basic set of criteria. For example, they:

• are accessible when needed.
• have appropriate credentials, relevant professional experience and necessary proficiencies.
• practice medicine in a high-quality manner by coordinating care and making wise use of evidence-based treatment methods, diagnostic tests, procedures and specialist services.
• focus on patients’ functional recovery, minimize needless life disruption and work disability, and produce positive overall outcomes in a timely manner.
• satisfy the needs of key parties in workers’ compensation cases (workers, employers, payers and others who may become involved) by providing guidance without bias and with good communication skills.

The Guide is a product of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) in partnership with the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC).

“Most participants in the workers’ compensation system want to direct workers to high-quality medical care, but rarely have access to accurate and comprehensive data about physician practice patterns,” said ACOEM Executive Director Barry Eisenberg. “This Guide provides a practical alternative – a methodical approach that helps them ask the right questions and find the information they need to ensure excellent care.”

“It is our hope that resources such as this Guide will encourage workers, employers, insurers and others to increasingly seek out the physicians who are most likely to deliver the best care outcomes, and in the process help drive overall improvement in the workers’ compensation system,” said IAIABC Executive Director Greg Krohm.

The Guide may be downloaded for free at  http://www.acoem.org/uploadedFiles/Policies_And_Position_Statements/Guidelines/Library_and_Reference_Material/A%20Guide%20to%20High%20Value%20Physician%20Services.pdf