Have you ever wondered how an insurance adjuster can influence your authorized workers’ compensation doctor? If you work in an industry where employees often get hurt, or where work injuries are likely to be serious, you can be certain that your employer’s insurance company has directed the human resource director at your company to include specific doctors on your company’s posted panel. Insurance adjusters know that physicians who derive most or all of their income from workers’ compensation referrals will be much less likely to keep you off work or order expensive tests.
The problem, of course, is that delays in needed tests, or delays in needed treatment can result in permanent injury to you. Further, if a panel doctor returns you to work and you are unable to perform your duties, you are likely to be fired putting you in a difficult financial situation and psychologically deterring you from pursuing your rightful benefits.
In this video I discuss a case where the authorized doctor flat out ignored his own physical therapist’s conclusions about my client’s very limited use of her arms, and issued a full duty return to work. I won’t let the insurer get away with this, of course, but I wanted you to see how broken the workers’ compensation medical system has become. I’d be willing to bet that this doctor knows that he was not living up to his oath to offer full and complete treatment to his patients, but his interest in making money and seeing those referrals seems to override his conscience.