Evidence-based medicine and utilization review (EBM/UR) of medical care for workers’ compensation are currently being pushed by big business and big insurance interests.

We are facing such legislation in Nebraska this year.

One reason supporters of this way to control medical care for workers give seems to be that medical care currently provided is “inefficient.”

This is a euphemism for medical costs are too high. I view this as critical of physicians and other health-care providers who are taking care of injured workers. The Florida Medical Association (FMA) has recently responded to this type of criticism of the medical profession. In their case, the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) and National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) say workers’ comp rates are being raised because drugs are dispensed directly by doctors. But an OIR report, according to the article linked below, “shows virtually no difference in the cost of such drugs whether dispensed by doctors or pharmacies,” so the FMA disagrees with blaming their doctors for rate increases.

This quote is from the story linked to above: “The truth is that the NCCI and carriers have used physician dispensing as a scapegoat for hundreds of millions of dollars in rate increases when other medical costs have been the real cost drivers in workers’ compensation,” the group charged. “The numbers are fabricated in an attempt to eliminate doctor dispensing.”