A rehabilitation case management firm has expanded its immediate medical assessment (IMA) service for insurers and solicitors to deliver benefits.
Health & Case Management Limited (HCML) will provide enhanced case manager access to clinical information and feed injured party satisfaction scores back to the referrer.
The company's IMA work on acute musculoskeletal injuries is handled by healthcare professionals.
And assessment and reporting is now backed by a Clinical Database Resource designed by the company's Medical Advisory Board and synchronised with HCML's IT systems.
If appropriate during the lifecycle of the claim, the process provides pathways to allow the injured party access to more intensive rehabilitation, aiming to maximise recovery and return to work outcomes.
Case settlement durations on one third party administration programme (TPA) have been reduced from an average of five months to around one month, HCML said.
Keith Bushnell, chief executive officer of HCML, said: "HCML's stepped-care approach is all about the importance of empowering the injured party with timely information, guidance and advice.
"This can reduce the duration and cost of rehabilitation and ensures a clinically appropriate pathway for the injured party, avoiding the dangers of delays in assessment and treatment intervention and the possibility of over-medicalising conditions."
HCML has recruited 24 new case managers since March 2012 and IMA volumes have doubled to more than 19,000 cases in 2012 compared to 2011.
