Your humble blogger is back,and so are you!  Are you ready to help me take on the workers’ compensation system in California one sarcastic and grossly inaccurate blog post at a time?

Well, those of you who, for some unthinkable reason, have read this blog before and have come back will recognize that your humble blogger is a big fan of technology.  Ideally, workers’ compensation will continue to modernize until all the work is done by robots and we all have the same job: sipping Oban and chuckling about how tough it used to be.

Presumably, the discussion might also include transmitting records and receiving reports from QMEs electronically, but who knows?

Your humble blogger is all for this, of course.  However, we’ve seen more than one instance where government agencies and private insurers alike have accidentally released the personal and medical information of countless injured workers.

If, ultimately, insurers are required to respond to every IMR request by electronically transmitting medical records, who will be responsible for the security of the injured worker’s privacy?  Will paper-based insurers suddenly be required to update their systems and purchase security software?  What happens if the leak is on the side of the IMR vendor?

Hopefully this will be addressed at the meeting.

What do you folks think about allowing records to be transmitted electronically to QMEs?

My take is that there are a lot of benefits: save on paper; save on postage; save on time for the PQME to get the records (we already have a 20-day delay to allow opposing counsel to review the records before they go to the PQME); and, best of all, there is a very clear record of exactly what was sent to the PQME and when.

The downside is, of course, that we would likely see even larger PQME bills for document review.  Not every QME is going to print out the records sent, and might take a slow and methodical approach to reading all the records on the screen.

What are your thoughts, dear readers?  Would you like to see a rule requiring QMEs to accept records and reports in electronic format?  Would you like them to be required to transmit their reports via e-mail?

Have a good Monday!