As an employer, it’s necessary to consider the best plan of approach when it comes to workplace injuries and workers’ compensation claims. Where you send your employees when an injury occurs on the job can have a significant impact on the final cost of a claim. A direct to specialist approach can help to substantially offset the overall costs of workers’ compensation claims.

An uphill battle facing today’s employers is the persistently rising costs of workers’ compensation claims. Trying to find a balance between managing costs to your business and providing quality care to your employees can seem impossible to achieve. But neither reasonable costs, nor quality care, should be sacrificed.

Direct to specialist care from MidAmerica Orthopaedics can be the solution to bridging these two goals. In fact, studies have shown that a direct to specialist approach to care can save roughly 60% on workers’ compensation claims when compared to a more traditional managed care approach.

Definitive Care from the Onset of a Work Injury with Direct to Specialist Approach

There are three factors which play a considerable role in increasing the costs of workers’ compensation claims. These are:

• Time off work
• Delayed treatment
• Prolonged care

Direct to specialist care from MidAmerica Orthopaedics reduces these factors by providing comprehensive treatment sooner, if not immediately, reducing compensation needed for missed work time and disability payments.

With traditional managed care, an injured employee would be seen by multiple healthcare providers. This would typically begin with a trip to the emergency room or urgent care facility to receive diagnostic tests, to stabilize the injury, and obtain a referral to a specialist. Days, or possibly even weeks later, a specialist will be seen, increasing time away from work, delaying treatment, and prolonging care of what could be a painful injury. Repeat diagnostic tests will likely be needed to ensure no further injury has occurred since initial treatment, adding to the cost of the overall claim. The specialist can then begin providing care to treat the injured employee in the hopes of returning them to work as soon as possible.

With MidAmerica’s Direct to Specialist care, employees can avoid most of this painstaking process and receive definitive care from a specialist right from the onset of their workplace injury. Definitive care is providing a full spectrum of care to conclusively manage a patient’s condition. So, whether an injured employee needs immediate care, diagnostic imaging, therapy, or even surgery, they can receive the appropriate care needed to begin treating their injury right away, avoiding long and costly emergency room visits and secondary specialist referrals.

MidAmerica has developed a comprehensive offering of on-site services to provide this type of treatment and at greater cost savings to employers paying for workers’ compensation claims. These on-site services include:

• Occupational Medicine Program
• Orthopaedic Immediate Care
• On-site Imaging, including x-ray, MRI, EMG, and ultrasound
• Physical/Occupational Therapy
• Ambulatory Surgery Center

Strong Return to Work Program

MidAmerica believes in providing employees with a safe and efficient return to work. Injured employees sent to MidAmerica are seen immediately and most treatment is received same day. With direct to specialist care, your employee could be back to work on a modified schedule as early as the same day or next day.

Supportive, High-Quality Care for Employees

One of the last things an employer wants is for their employees to feel like their work injury and treatment was handled poorly. With MidAmerica’s Direct to Specialist care, employees feel the value of being seen immediately by a specialist, rather than getting sent from facility to facility and spending days or weeks in pain and out of work. For an employer, less wait times and fewer unnecessary and repetitive services equates to cost savings. But to an employee, this equates to better-quality and faster treatment, in addition to much less aggravation. When employees feel that they are receiving the highest quality of care possible, they are less likely to pursue legal representation to handle a workers’ compensation claim.

Talk to a specialist from MidAmerica Orthopaedics’ Workers’ Compensation Services to learn more about our program and how direct to specialist care can benefit you and your employees. Call us at (708) 237-7200 today.