SPECIALIST MEDICAL SERVICES

Our Specialist Services division has over 30 years’ industry experience and brings together a highly credentialled panel of more than 1,000 independent medical experts covering a broad range of specialities. We provide insightful and relevant medical opinions for customers who are responsible for people’s health and/or employment outcomes.

With a well-established tradition of excellent customer service and quality assurance, we provide independent medical, peer review and second-opinion services and a range of other diversified and integrated solutions. Our experts utilise their extensive clinical expertise underpinned by evidence-based medicine to provide accurate and best practice clinical advice on diagnosis, causation, treatment and return to work.

Our Specialist Services businesses are mlcoa and the Medilaw Group (comprising Medilaw, Next Health and MindSense Occupational Psychiatry).

Not only do we deliver medical opinions that provide a way forward, our ability to seamlessly integrate with our Rehabilitation & Return To Work division enables us to provide holistic solutions that solve problems and achieve outcomes for both the injured person and our customers.

INDEPENDENT SPECIALIST OPINIONS

Our medical specialists provide independent opinions on diagnosis, causation, treatment, functional capacity and expected recovery outcomes for a person who is injured/ill giving you reliable information to make decisions and move forward.

ACROSS AUSTRALIA AND INTERNATIONAL

Our specialist opinions support decision-making and better outcomes across all schemes and jurisdictions. We also manage international independent medical assessments for you with respect to both Australian and International customers.

SECOND OPINIONS AND GUIDANCE

Invaluable for validating a course of action including the right diagnosis or surgical relevance, we provide independent second opinions for patients, treating doctors or case managers to guide them towards an evidence-based pathway.

FITNESS FOR WORK

We determine a person’s capacity to perform their job, helping to prevent new injury or reinjury, recommending modifications and advising on how to manage health, fitness and medical issues to optimise ability to work.

OPTIMISE MEDICATION USE, REDUCE RISK

We work collaboratively with all parties to ensure the best medication use, identify non-pharmacological alternatives, reduce safety risks and educate all parties.

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP

Collaboration and partnership reap even better business outcomes for our customers. We team with our workplace rehabilitation and return to work division and other academic, government or business organisations to deliver optimum results. We also team with your expertise to develop solutions that are geared at solving your specific problems.

CASE STUDY

Surgical second opinions

There are often multiple options for treating a person who is injured or ill.

When the recommended way forward is surgery, it is valuable to assess all options. Sometimes intervention is not necessary or may have complications and require complex rehabilitation. Conversely, delaying necessary surgery can  have a negative impact.

Second opinions on surgery gives you reassurance that the best treatment is planned – or may lead to even better treatment options.

MedHealth uses its robust treatment ratification capabilities to critically appraise the clinical efficacy of proposed surgical procedures, including other diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

This service delivers to all parties. The patient receives an informed second opinion and treatment options to discuss with their doctor. Our customers get a prompt and robust second opinion which comprises comprehensive clinical reasoning, high quality and relevant medical evidence to support recommendations and advice – enabling timely decision-making on cost approval requests.

What’s more, when this surgical second opinion service is used:

  • Treatment delays are reduced
  • Cost savings are realised as unnecessary interventions are prevented
  • Patient outcomes improve

CASE STUDY

Guiding treating doctors

MedHealth specialists have been providing clinical opinion services and guidance to treating doctors for several years and receive excellent satisfaction ratings from both the treating doctor and the patient alike.

What makes this work so well is that it’s a non-adversarial, non-obligatory examination and peer-to-peer service, providing prompt guidance and support in areas of diagnosis, best practice treatment, capacity to work and prognosis. The specialist has no vested interest and the treating doctor is the key recipient of the clinical summary report.

The goals of this service include:

  • Improving the patient experience
  • Shorter claim durations and costs
  • Better stakeholder engagement and alignment
  • Reduced claims disputation processes
  • Clearer insight into recovery and return to work expectations

Outcomes include:

  • More than 80% of treating doctors opt to participate
  • The diagnosis is revised and updated (there is greater diagnostic accuracy) in 68% of case
  • A change in treatment options is recommended in more than 65% of cases
  • Greater work capacity is identified in approximately 64% of cases

CASE STUDY

Dealing with prescription drug addiction

With prescription drug addiction becoming known as the ‘modern plague epidemic’, our unique medications safety program has been increasing in demand across industries and compensation schemes. In many cases, an expert review of a person’s medication regime has saved them from many adverse effects resulting from ineffectual or harmful medications. Our expert guidance is designed to avert any consequential harm and assist the transition to a safer program of effective medication use, pain management care and treatment.

The aims of this service are to:

  • Optimise medication therapy
  • Minimise any adverse effects and irreversible impacts
  • Improve decision making for better health outcomes
  • Help inform the individual and potentially guide them towards better decisions and better options

The result is a service that can achieve the following outcomes:

  • Reduction in health complications and mortality risks
  • Reduction in unnecessary medication costs
  • Reduced whole person impairment impact arising out of consequential harm caused by inappropriate medications
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