Report Points to Potential Shortage of Workers' Comp Specialists

Thursday, March 17, 2016 | 0

New York may be facing a shortage of specialists willing to treat injured workers, forcing some to go without treatment, WNBC-TV reported.

The TV station cited the case of an injured worker who needs to see ophthalmologists who can scrape blood from his retina, the effects of an earlier workplace injury that leaves him in serous pain.

The Workers’ Compensation Board gave George Akturk a list of 64 ophthalmologists authorized to treat injured workers in New York, yet after calling all of them, he still had no doctor to treat his injury, according to the report.

Robert Grey, an applicant’s attorney interviewed by the news station, said there are especially shortages of ophthalmologists, oncologists, pulmonologists and cardiologists willing to treat injured workers.

Physicians have been leaving the workers’ comp system ever since New York in 2010 adopted medical treatment guidelines that restrict the medical discretion of specialists, Dr. Michael Lax, director of the SUNY Upstate Occupational Health Clinic, told the TV station. He added that payers challenge doctors at nearly every step of treatment.

Under New York Workers’ Compensation Board regulations, doctors who are authorized to treat injured workers are not allowed to refuse treatment to patients.