Layering on the pain

Any­one involved in try­ing to reha­bil­i­tate staff after injury – whether employ­ers’ lia­bil­i­ty insur­ance com­pa­nies or employ­ers as part of their own occu­pa­tion­al health arrange­ments – are like­ly to view the prospect of any kind of treat­ment with a large degree of cau­tion.

There is good rea­son for this. For many years, reha­bil­i­ta­tion efforts have used the equiv­a­lent of a sledge­ham­mer to crack a nut. Some­one with a minor whiplash injury to the neck, for instance, does not require an MRI scan, an orthopaedic con­sul­ta­tion and sev­er­al ses­sions of phys­io­ther­a­py. They may sim­ply require advice on how to ensure they do not aggra­vate the injury, and per­haps access to some neck exer­cis­es which can alle­vi­ate any pain and pre­vent it becom­ing any­thing more seri­ous. It is all about match­ing the injury to the individual’s needs in a cost-effec­tive man­ner.

Fur­ther­more, much of this advice and sup­port can be pro­vid­ed over the tele­phone. For many years employ­ers and employ­ees have been wary of this, but the con­cept is now well estab­lished among GPs as well as pri­vate med­ical com­pa­nies and even employ­ers’ own employ­ee assis­tance pro­grammes. In GPs’ surg­eries, too, it’s com­mon to see nurs­es tak­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for a range of appoint­ments as well as tak­ing blood tests and per­form­ing basic med­ical checks; a good exam­ple of ensur­ing the appro­pri­ate skill and exper­tise is matched to the task in hand.

BLAME AND CLAIM

It should be exact­ly the same with reha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices, with the focus on pro­vid­ing an appro­pri­ate, cost-effec­tive solu­tion. Yet often employ­ers are caught in the mid­dle of the “blame and claim” cul­ture, with insur­ers and solic­i­tors enter­ing into lengthy dis­putes over com­pen­sa­tion and unnec­es­sary treat­ment while rack­ing up large legal bills in the process. As a result, some­thing that could have been resolved through reha­bil­i­ta­tion rel­a­tive­ly cheap­ly can end up cost­ing thou­sands of pounds with no ben­e­fit to the injured par­ty.

Recent attempts to cut down on this cul­ture have forced both insur­ers and lawyers to change their behav­iour. But in some cas­es this has led to them buy­ing up reha­bil­i­ta­tion com­pa­nies and lay­er­ing cost upon cost to make up for lost rev­enue. In these sit­u­a­tions, employ­ers or their insur­ers can find them­selves fac­ing bills of £1,000 upwards for MRI scans that should cost from £450 or hav­ing to pay for unnec­es­sary X‑rays or phys­io­ther­a­py. No won­der busi­ness­es are wary of engag­ing in reha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices.

FRESH APPROACH

What is need­ed is an injec­tion of hon­esty and prag­ma­tism around the true cost of reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­vi­sion and its method­olo­gies. Cor­pore – The Treat­ment Net­work is an inde­pen­dent com­pa­ny which prides itself on being trans­par­ent in how it works, offer­ing the treat­ment that is need­ed and jus­ti­fied.

We work for employ­ers, solic­i­tors and insur­ers, who know they can rely on the ser­vice they are get­ting and that they are get­ting it at the right price. We’re also very much out­come-focused, work­ing to ensure patients recov­er and employ­ers are able to get peo­ple back to work as quick­ly as pos­si­ble, earn­ing a liv­ing for them­selves and their fam­i­lies, and revers­ing the spi­ral of mis­ery and reduced income which can arise after a nasty acci­dent.

What is need­ed is an injec­tion of hon­esty and prag­ma­tism around the true cost of reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­vi­sion and its method­olo­gies

Cor­pore – The Treat­ment Network’s absence man­age­ment sys­tem could result in insur­ers offer­ing low­er pre­mi­ums to their employer’s lia­bil­i­ty cus­tomers as part of the pack­age. This is because insur­ance com­pa­nies will know about any issue much ear­li­er in the process, mean­ing they’re able to take action to treat con­di­tions before they esca­late. Ear­ly inter­ven­tion means low­er bills for insur­ance providers and busi­ness, as well as reduced absence rates for employ­ers, ear­li­er return to work, with a knock-on of bet­ter health and well­be­ing for patients.

The old mod­el of reha­bil­i­ta­tion has been proved to be both inef­fec­tive and cost­ly, and has left employ­ers wary of going down that route at all. A lit­tle open­ness and hon­esty can ben­e­fit every­one, while also keep­ing costs down at the same time.

To find out more about how Cor­pore – The Treat­ment Net­work could help your busi­ness, vis­it www.corpore-ttn.co.uk or call 0117 962 5017

BLAME AND CLAIM

FRESH APPROACH