THE WAR DOCTORS NEVER WANTED
As a medical provider, whether you know it or not, if you’ve
taken a motor vehicle accident patient since 1998, you’ve been drafted into a
war against the machines that would sound like a science fiction plot were its
real world effects not undeniably real. This “war” is an informational one and
the “machines” are computers using relational databases and predictive
software. If you are an MD, the goal is to destroy your interest in treating
car accident victims at all, or any more frequently than you have to. If you
are a Doctor of Chiropractic, they have set out to eventually destroy your
practice to the extent you let them get away with it.
They make war on you with machines. These machines go by
different names: Colossus, Claims Outcome Advisor, InjuryIQ, and other lesser
known or even in house systems. What all of these systems have in common is one
supreme goal—cost containment. Make no mistake, whether you have a MD, DC, DO,
PA, FNP, or PT behind your name, you are a variable within the software and you
and your patient must be controlled to in turn make costs ever more
predictable. When an insurance company says they need "more predictable
costs," you have to know they mean to make a part of that money back by
squeezing it out of your practice and from your patient's level of care.
As of this writing, there are few automobile casualty
insurance companies which do not use Colossus or something very much like it.
Regardless of how they assess claims, all of them participate in voluntary
informational exchanges regarding claimants, medical providers, attorneys, and
the ongoing relationships, if any, between them. All of these programs analyze
current data and mine old data about everyone involved in the case so that it
can be used as ammo against your patient’s claim. They might even be making a
case that you should be considered—insurance industry wide—as a quack or a
fraud. If you are a DC, you know that the insurance industry has long before
declared war on your profession. Increasingly though, the war is spreading to
anyone who dares to treat accident victims. If you develop a reputation, for
good or ill, in any one of these systems, it will eventually make its way to
the others too. In this informational war, you need all of the battle hardened
and effective allies you can get. You need our car accident experts.
How claims limitation software directly affects you as a
medical provider is simple—your practice habits and your professionalism play
an increasingly large role in whether you get paid for all of the services you
performed.
You are continually being rated for your thoroughness,
accuracy, diagnostic and prognostic skill, and your office billing practices
are scrutinized every time you submit. When your billings and notes go to an
insurer who is utilizing these systems you are also giving them another data
point about how you practice, including:
The type of patient you take, their economic status, even
their national origin, all are constantly evaluated.
Your entire practice is being statistically dissected.
Whether you are a solo practice or member of a group, its creditworthiness, the
rents it likely pays, the amount and role of the employees you have, its
reliance on automobile accident cases—all are being monitored.
The track records of the attorneys you most frequently work
with are being continually updated and related back to your patients and
yourself.
That is where we come in. We are car accident experts. We
have the deep knowledge and the contacts to help you to thrive on the
battlefield of these claims limitations systems. We know the techniques and
resources which can help you maximize your effectiveness as a player in these
systems, while still allowing you to provide quality care. Finally, we know the
attorneys who will not only write effective demand letters to best protect the
interests of your client, while maximizing your chances for the reimbursement
of any outstanding bills you may have, but who will also go to war tooth and
nail over the cases that absolutely demand to be tried.
