WCDefenseCA

Alrighty dear readers! It is Wednesday and we are powering through this week like your humble blogger used to power through all-you-can-eat sushi-boat before COVID19, dignity, and middle age but a cruel and regrettable Kibosh on such practices.

So, odds are pretty good that you’re getting at least some reports reflecting PTP visits through tele-medicine.  Sometimes it’s a phone conversation.  Sometimes it’s a video-conference.  I suspect that, sometimes, nothing happens at all but the shadier members of the medical community just can’t help but routinely bill.  Hopefully, due to the diligence of the defense community, and the zeal of our prosecutors will keep that to a minimum.

Telemedicine, as vital as it is during this period of shelter-in-place, has its limitations.  While a psychiatric QME examination might very well be done over video-conference, a physical exam is not so readily performed.  Perhaps the PTP can prescribe medication, but probably can’t administer an injection, right?  So, about that…

Inverse.com has an article about an experimental “surgery” performed on a cadaver by Italian physicians from 9 miles away.  Assistants set up the cadaver and the robots, and then surgeons wearing 3D headsets and using robots controlled over the internet performed the surgery.  The lag between command and response was negligible and did not appear to affect the performance of the surgeons.  Pretty cool, huh?

What does this mean for us in the workers’ compensation world? 

Well, the advantages of tele-medicine are many.  A doctor in one geographic area can provide service to many geographic areas.  The WCAB already uses remote Judges and court reporters as necessary.  When one location is becoming overwhelmed, a less-congested venue can fill in and help.  

Could this approach be used for more invasive procedures?  Can an injured worker report to a clinic and have epidural injections remotely controlled by a doctor?  Could chiropractic manipulations be controlled and guided by a remote chiropractor?

Fee schedule issues are an ongoing point of contention within our beloved workers’ compensation system.   Physicians naturally want to be paid more for their services, and carriers naturally want to pay less.  What if the fees stayed the same but this approach significantly reduced provided overhead and increased capacity for more services?

Laugh all you want, dear readers, but it doesn’t look like California’s Shelter-in-Place approach is going away before the flu season, and we’re likely to be hit by the perfect storm at that point: kids returning to school, businesses reopening out of desperation, and influenza resurging as is tradition.  Technology may, yet again, be the answer.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, your humble blogger’s Roomba has yet again lost its battle with the curtains, which I’m sure, in no way, reflects on the prospects of success for robotic surgeries.

Straight on till Friday, dear readers!