Maine Governor Unveils Plan to Revamp Gridlocked Workers’ Comp Board

March 17, 2004

  • March 17, 2004 at 3:44 am
    R. Murphy says:
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    Restructuring Maine’s workers compensation board is only part of what has to be done to break the gridlock and make the claims process timely and cost effective. As in so many other states, there is another government agency which needs restructured besides the workers compensation board. That is the state medical board.

    State medical boards are currently doing little to investigate a growing industry of doctors and medical specialists who are performing less than honest examinations of injured workers. There is a hugh demand now for unethical, sometimes even dishonest doctors to help employers and insurance companies deny the claims of the injured. Consequently, the same doctors are also helping the injured create or overstate claims. Its all becoming a matter of who is paying the doctor for the diagnosis they want.

    This industry of less than honest doctors has also lead to a booming business for workers compensation lawyers. How could so many lawyers make money on percentages if certain doctors couldn’t be paid to say anything?

    Some insurers may think that they save money by having medical specialists available who will bend in their direction, but that just makes appeals more likely and causes a lot of extra expense and delay. It’s a problem for both sides. (The lawyers sure seem to be cashing in though.)

    Even the federal government is using these unethical doctors. The Department of Labor Office of Workers Compensation Programs is notorius for using unethical/dishonest doctors to help them deny claims quickly because it looks good when they can report it as a cost savings to Congress. But, in the long term, that tax payers end up footing the bill for a long drawn out appeals process. (The lawyers make good money though.)

    The state medical boards receive a lot of complaints about dishonest doctors. But, like in Ohio, California and most states in between, the boards just sit on the complaints and they are rarely even investigated.

    Real workers compensation reform demands medical reform. The state medical board for Maine and many other states need to be put upon to more earnestly investigate and discipline doctors who perform dishonest second opinion examinations as well help people defraud insurers.

    This will not only help untangle the gridlock, but will cut fraudulent and overstated claims. It might even help insurers to gain more trust in the eyes of the injured workers who, for the most part, just want to recover and go back to work.

    Is it too much to ask to want all doctors to be accountable?



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