CHOICE Launches Workers’ Comp Physician Practice Analysis

CHOICE Medical Management Services, LLC has launched the first ever comprehensive workers’ compensation physician practice analysis.

“This is the first provider analysis in the industry using data from the whole claim, medical, indemnity and total claim costs, as well as administrative processes,” Tom Barrett, CHOICE president said.

The analysis extracts claims-level and physician-level data to measure return-to-work outcomes and the cost efficiency of physicians in CHOICE’s network, called its Provider Management Organization. The CHOICE PMO is comprised of physicians with considerable workers’ compensation experience, superior outcomes and high patient satisfaction ratings.

“We know our doctors are the best in the business,” Barrett said. “This analysis will help us pinpoint the components that contribute to their excellence and will allow us to go to the next level of performance. The goal is to identify best-practices and benchmarks to ensure continuous improvements in areas that yield the best outcomes in return-to-work and cost-efficiency.

CHOICE assembled a panel of physicians from its PMO to consult on the analysis. “We consider physician input absolutely essential to establishing meaningful measures,” Barrett said, noting that CHOICE will actively solicit feedback from the physicians who receive a Physician Practice Analysis Report.

Focusing on specialties commonly associated with workers’ comp claims, including primary care, occupational medicine, orthopedics, and neurology, the physician practice analysis will give a snapshot of various key metrics. These metrics incorporate a variety of outcomes such as total claims costs, days away from work, claim closure rates and average days to first appointment. The analysis will compare physicians’ outcomes to peers within their own specialties, giving doctors benchmarks for improving their own practices. CHOICE plans to release the results from its initial physician practice analysis late in the first quarter of 2006.

CHOICE developed its analytical process, incorporating workers’ comp-specific criteria and measures. The firm also designed the process to enable on-going monitoring and continuous quality improvement.

Topics Workers' Compensation New Markets