Citation

Hammett ME, Jankosky C, Muller J, Hughes E, Litow F. Mil. Med. 2012; 177(1): 17-22.

Affiliation

Occupational and Environmental Medicine Department, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, Portsmouth, VA 23708, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22338973

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify common attributes of Federal workers' compensation cases referred to Navy physicians for medical opinions and to determine the impact of the review on the final case decision. METHODS: Retrospective case study and descriptive analysis of 258 opinion letters written by physicians on referred cases from 2006 to 2010. RESULTS: Navy physician opinions were considered in the outcome in some of the cases, and there was a statistically significant difference between the claim acceptance rate in the study population and the total population. Worker age was correlated with certain claim types. CONCLUSIONS: There is preliminary evidence that the opinion letters of Navy physicians influenced case decisions. Because of the selection bias in how the cases came to the study population, a prospective cohort study is warranted to establish whether this conclusion and the other results noted are valid.

Language: en