On the Bright Side

Now that the dog days of August are upon us, there is at least some good news to report on the workers’ comp front that may impact implementation of medical tourism into workers’ compensation.

Joe Paduda reports today that improvements in the economic picture foreshadow a rise in insurance premiums, which in turn will lead to more money being spent on medical management.

If this is true, then perhaps the industry can be induced to explore medical tourism as a part of the increased spending on medical management of workers’ compensation claims.

No doubt, insurers and employers will want that money spent wisely, so that surgical procedures generally performed in workers’ comp that are very expensive here, will be replaced by the same procedures being performed abroad for a fraction of the cost, and with better quality outcomes and faster recovery times.

As I have been saying for some time now, this is not going to be easy to implement, and there are no magic spells that will make this happen overnight. What it will take is the vision to see this as a real alternative, the guts and desire to make it happen, and the hard work and dedication to give the injured worker the best medical care available on the planet, at the lowest cost possible, without having to pad the bank accounts and wallets of doctors, hospitals, outpatient facilities, specialists and other medical and legal personnel, who only see work comp as a profitable venture for them, but are not the least bit concerned with the costs and toll it takes on the payers, the employers, the employees and the taxpayers.

Health care, in whatever form it takes, does not have to be expensive, it just has to be the best available so that the patient recovers and returns to health as fast as humanly possible. To go back to the same old, same old, now that the economic picture is improving is reckless and wasteful, something that will come back to haunt those who insist on avoiding such alternatives do at their own peril.