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SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association
(CAAA), whose members represent Californians injured on the job, released a free podcast focused on the new Independent Medical Review (IMR) process for resolving medical treatment disputes. The podcast features a panel of IMR experts at CAAA’s recent summer convention. “CAAA is dedicated to ensuring injured workers get SB 863’s promised prompt access to necessary medical care,” said CAAA President Larry Stern. “We are closely following implementation of the new IMR process to resolve medical disputes, and want all interested parties to have access to our expertise to improve how IMR is working. We hope this presentation will improve understanding and operation of IMR towards its objective of fair, prompt resolution of medical treatment disputes.”
As of July 1, 2013, every dispute over a utilization review (UR) decision regarding medical treatment for a work injury must now be resolved by Independent Medical Review – IMR.
“As with any new program, many have more questions than answers,” said Stern. “Releasing this presentation can help answer questions, such as ‘What do we do when we get a UR decision? How long do we have to act? What if the UR decision is late? Can we submit more evidence with an IMR appeal? What happens if the IMR review finds the treatment was necessary? Or if it agrees with the UR determination?’”
To help everyone understand this new process, CAAA is making this 35-minute podcast available to California’s entire workers’ compensation community. The podcast is a condensed form of a presentation given at the June 2013 CAAA Convention in Las Vegas. Anyone can access this free IMR podcast or look for it on the homepage of the CAAA website, www.caaa.org. CAAA hopes this podcast will help ease the transition to the new UR and IMR processes introduced in SB 863. To listen to the IMR Podcast, click here: https://www.caaa.org/index.cfm?pg=IMRPodcast