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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Ohio Bureau Of Workers' Compensation: An Analysis Of The Status Quo And A Proposal For Improvement (A Medical Perspective), William H. Seitz Jr. Jan 2006

The Ohio Bureau Of Workers' Compensation: An Analysis Of The Status Quo And A Proposal For Improvement (A Medical Perspective), William H. Seitz Jr.

Journal of Law and Health

A worker's compensation claim is frequently a nightmare for the patient (injured worker), the employer (insurance payor), and the physician (health care provider). Because of the wastefulness inherent in the system, the overall cost of providing workers' compensation care in the State of Ohio has increased dramatically and as a result has seen significant reductions in hospital reimbursement levels and patient benefits, such as prescription drug availability. This article provides two clinical examples to highlight the problems with the worker's compensation system in Ohio. The first case example demonstrates what happens when the patient's initial diagnosis upon entering the system …


Pitfalls In Diagnosis Of Occupational Lung Disease For Purposes Of Compensation - One Physician's Perspective , Lawrence Martin Jan 1998

Pitfalls In Diagnosis Of Occupational Lung Disease For Purposes Of Compensation - One Physician's Perspective , Lawrence Martin

Journal of Law and Health

Ideally, the fact that diagnosis of OLD involves the legal profession should not affect a physician's objectivity or clinical approach. Physicians have an obligation to help assure that deserving patients receive compensation, and that claimants without a compensable occupational illness are not unjustly rewarded. However, the attorney's need to prove a diagnosis "with medical certainty," and the defendant's needs to refute that diagnosis with equal certainty, often skew what would otherwise be a straightforward diagnostic process. Resulting pitfalls in diagnosis can, in the end, trap the physician advocate and the side he is trying to help.