Happy Wednesday, dear readers!

Quick question for you – what do you do when you’re forced to deal with a treating physician that you’d rather avoid?  If applicant’s counsel sends you a letter declaring Dr. Nick Riviera as the PTP, what do you?  Do you check your MPN? Good!

You know what else you should be doing?  You might consider checking out the suspended physicians list as well.  Unfortunately, the bulk of these are in Southern California, which doesn’t help us in the wild, untamed North very much.

The DWC just announced another 21 physicians suspended from participating in the workers’ comp system.  Your MPN website might not be keeping up, or your applicant might have escaped the MPN as it is.

Unfortunately, MPN standards as set out by regulation, sometimes make it difficult to comply, and some physicians that could find a healthy Olympic athlete totally and permanently disabled (within the four corners of the Guides, of course) get on the list out of necessity.

I know we can all think of a few doctors in our respective geographic area that somehow make it onto our MPNs but should really be riding shotgun to a PI lawyer in high-speed pursuit of an ambulance.

Perhaps if we keep a close eye on the DWC’s suspended physician list, we might get lucky in rejecting requests for treatment with physicians who only provide life support to an applicant’s case, rather than his health.