Last resort/necessity, going to Thailand

[ryan]

This may be a strange question, or not, but it would be a first for my Workers Comp Advocates. I am going to Thailand to receive a complete examination for my back injury and related nerve impingement that is the result of a work injury.

I would like to know whether the company's insurer (the bad guys) will consider this examination bonafide.

I want to use the examination to determine the full extent of my injury and possible future needs in order to determine a basis for a settlement.

The examination will exist of an MRI and all related doctors in one location, at one time, discussing my injury. I'm going. I'm just wondering whether I can use this to my advantage.

-Ryan

[1171]

depends on what you want to use it for.
many states control treatment thru utilization review panel that usually have to have valid in force state medical license.

[lfoster21]

I would guess that it may not be able to be used as a Drs' opinion, in a settlement. I say this because I have contacted a Orthopeadic Surgeon that works in California (I'm in VA). I wanted the opinion of a Dr. that was not in my current W/C circle, to run their diognosis by him and to see if he agreed and/or had any new ideas. I sent him my MRI's and all my surgery's/ Drs. notes etc. He agreed with some of my Drs. Dx, & had new ideas re. my some of my symptoms, that my Drs. had no idea about what was wrong. This Dr. gave me some suggestions w/ his reasoning and told me to pass it by my Drs. and as it turned out, this Dr. I have been cooresponding with, correctly Dx. me with a rare condition, that my Drs. had not considered.

That be said, I asked him how much it would cost, to have him type up a report of his notes re. all that he had discovered and how he came up with the dx. He said that he has worked with W/C cases for over 20 years and that they are not allowed to use information from a Dr. in a different state. I was prepared to fly to CA and see this Dr. in person, if I needed to, in order to get a detailed report for my settlement case and for treatment. But he told me that it would be a waste of my money.

I don't know this Dr. well enough to know if he knew what he was talking about, but I would think if he did not know for sure, 1...he would not have out right lied and 2...why would he have turned down my money twice (once for a report and once for an actual visit) if he thought I could use the report.

That is just what I have been told, but someone else might know better than me.

On the other hand, if you are doing this to learn more, then it could be worth it. The information I learned from my cross-county Dr. was invaluable to me. What I have is very rare and none of my Drs. thought about it (and my Drs. are not W/C drs.). Once I asked them what they thought, fisrt they said it was highly unlikly and then after I kept on them, explaining why this Dr. thought about it, and I pulled up the symptoms from the web and took them to my Drs., they did a few more test and then realized I do have Arachnoditis. I may never have gotten the correct Dx. and treatment, if I did not think out side of the box.

I wish you well and keep us posted.