全球智库信息集成服务系统

There Are Several Opportunities to Streamline WC-Required Reports

• There is a general consensus that the report should be required from the first physician who examines the patient following a work-related incident.
• The elimination of the redundancies between the Primary Treating Physician's Progress Report (PR-2) and the Request for Authorization (RFA) represents another opportunity to reduce physicians' reporting burden.
• Program efficiency could be increased through electronic reporting of all WC-required reports and documentation.
• While electronic reporting has distinct advantages over the current system, it is important to recognize that physician practices providing services to WC patients have different levels of health information technology capabilities.

Intense Care Coordination Is Required Between the Primary Treating Physician and Any Secondary Physicians in Treating an Injured Worker and in Efficiently Gaining Needed Treatment

• Requiring the primary treating physician to submit the reports facilitates care coordination, but there are downsides to this.
• Primary treating physicians indicated that obtaining and compiling reports from secondary physicians was time consuming and can create delays in filing progress reports.
• Requiring a secondary treating physician to submit the RFA raises an issue of whether the secondary physician should also file a PR-2.

The Fee Schedule Should Account for Reporting Burden Not Otherwise Incorporated into the Allowance for the Related Medical Care

• Findings are mixed about the lack of an allowance for the Doctor's First Report of Occupational Injury or Illness (DFR).
• PR-2 is undervalued relative to other services for comparable activities.