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Get some workers comp doctors on your side

Why Do You Need To Get A Work Note From A Doctor After A Serious Work Injury? We hear all the time from injured workers in DC who don’t understand the differences between simply getting medical treatment for an injury and getting medical treatment for a workers’ comp injury. If you were injured at work and are receiving benefits, you need to be getting monthly work notes as your “ticket” to continued money benefits and medical treatment. So How Does Medical Treament Work After A Serious Work Injury In Washington DC? First of all, treatment on workers comp requires authorizations - a lot more authorization than would be required under normal health insurance. The workers comp company just wants to throw up roadblocks and slow down progress in hopes that the injured workers will just get frustrated and stop treatment. Or use their personal insurance instead of workers comp insurance. And innjured workers will et it from both sides. Because workers comp insurance is such a pain, many doctors' offices simply won’t proceed with medical treatment until they have “authorization” (promise to pay) from the insurance company.

When scheduling medical treatment, you need to be prepared for extra administrative measures, evaluations, and paperwork that you might not have to deal with when using regular health insurance. You should give yourself extra time before a first appointment with a new provider for these types of tasks. And call ahead of time to make sure that the office has recieved the authorizations from the workers' comp adjuster to make sure you don't drive to their appointment just to be sent back home. A disability note, or work note, is the ticket to getting benefits in DC workers comp. When you see your treating physician (not a physical therapist or occupational therapist) you will need to get a disability note whenever you go. This disability note says whether or not you can return to work (or return to work with restrictions). If you are out of work, you won’t get benefits without sending this note to an adjuster after every doctor’s appointment. And you had better believe if you are late with the work note or worse, don’t get it at all, the insurance adjuster will stop your benefits.

It becomes much harder to get a hold of the work note once you leave the office. Front desk people get busy, records clerks have a hundred files in front of them. You need to just get it when you are there. And don't forget to look at your slip before you leave the office, and make sure it says what the doctor said to them. Doctor's offices sometimes make clerical errors, so you always want to make sure that the paperwork matches what you discussed with your doctor. When you get referrals they have to match the type of treatment exactly. For example, if the referral says "physical therapy" and you want to get "aqua therapy," you will have to get an order specifically for aqua therapy. You should also check your prescriptions for dosing consistency. You want to make sure you have enough to last until your next visit. You need to make sure you have all of your office visit notes from your treating physician, and reports from any surgeries and special treatment. We recommend that you keep a copy of all of your own records, but for our clients we order and keep track of all of the records associated with their treatment and we seek authorizations on their behalf.

If you were injured on or after Jan. 1, 2004, a chiropractor cannot be your treating physician after 24 chiropractic visits. Once you have received 24 chiropractic visits if you still require medical treatment, you will have to select a new physician who is not a chiropractor. Q. Does the 24 visit cap on chiropractic visits apply to all cases? A. No. The 24 visit cap does not apply to injuries that occurred before Jan. 1, 2004. Also, the cap does not apply if your employer authorizes additional visits in writing. Additionally, the cap does not apply to visits for certain postsurgical physical medicine and rehabilitation services. Q. What if I disagree with the MPN doctor's treatment plan? A. If you disagree with your MPN doctor about your treatment, you can change to another physician on the MPN list. You can also ask for a 2nd and 3rd opinion from different MPN doctors. If you still disagree, you can have an IMR to resolve the dispute.

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