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05/16/2008

OSCA Meets with BWC Official

On the heels of public testimony three weeks ago, OSCA Executive Director Woody Woodward, Board Chair Dr. Jud Sprandel and Workers' Compensation Chair Dr. Otto Schmidt met yesterday with Ohio BWC Chief of Medical Services and Compliance Robert Coury.  The nearly two hour meeting focused primarily on DC concerns with the medical claims review process and the steerage of injured workers to MCO affiliated providers.  Establishing a chronic or supportive care guideline for injured workers was also discussed.

"Bob Coury has a great grasp of our issues and a willingness to make the system better for everyone who is a part of it-including chiropractic physicians who are providing high quality care to injured workers.  It is really clear to me that ‘we've always done it that way' won't be an excuse for not making changes.  The new administration is carefully examining the way that things are done down there and they have a very good grasp of the issues which cause problems for DC's and providers throughout the system," said OSCA Executive Director Woody Woodward.

Following the medical forum late last month, the Bureau produced a document, "BWC's Plan for Enhancing our Medical Services," which includes four primary objectives.  They are:
Enhancing our medical provider network
Designing better benefit plans
Establishing better managed care processes
Enhancing our medical bill payment services

The full plan is available here: BWCs 2008 Plan to Enhance Medical Services.

BWC work groups are already underway in each of these areas.  While tracking provider outcomes is part of the on-going discussions, Woodward said DCs should have nothing to fear from such a plan.  "The DCs who are authentically providing quality care to injured workers should welcome tracking provider outcomes.  We will work with the BWC every step of the way to make sure that the tracking mechanism is comprehensive and fair to DCs. If it is, we expect the data will show that most chiropractors do an outstanding job caring for injured workers in a cost effective way."

The OSCA will continue to work with the BWC work groups as work continues on implementing the plan.  Coury will investigate and report back to the OSCA on the specific issues which were addressed in yesterdays meeting.

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