Independent Medical Evaluation

Definition and Purpose

Definition and Purpose

Medical examination is often a procedure performed by a doctor assigned to a patients case or a patients preference. At times, certain medical conditions or events lead a patient to be examined by two or more doctors he normally does not deal with. The latter situation is called independent medical evaluation (IME).

Independent medical evaluation is a term applied to situations where a doctor personally examines a person for certain purposes. The most common purpose of this is to determine whether a person is still able to go back to work, if he needs more medical attention, if he is still disabled by an injury, if the injury is not pre-determined, if a person can resume normal daily activities after recovery, of if he acquired a medical condition that offers no option for full recovery. This process is carried out by a doctor who is tasked by another company apart from the institution that a patient is in.

Characteristics and Arenas

Independent medical evaluation has three characteristics: the doctor is independent, a medical procedure or a medical review is performed, and an evaluation is made. Concurrent to these characteristics established arenas the evaluation is done for. Arenas determine reasons for evaluation and are relative to a patients case. Among the most common arenas are workers compensation, motor vehicle injury, personal injury, and long term disability.

Features

A. The evaluation is performed by an independent reviewer who can be a doctor or a specialist in a specific medical field. The independent reviewer should possess the educational and experiential merit to qualify for as an independent reviewer. The independent reviewer should not have any prior involvement to a patients case.

B. The independent reviewer is tasked to prepare a comprehensive report regarding a patients case. Apart from the objective information included, the report should also incorporate the patients subjective account of medical conditions or events leading to the present case.

C. Impairment ratings are the goal of medical examinations administered by the independent reviewer.

D. Unlike the treating physician, an independent reviewer is only sent to evaluation a patient once. This leads to a more detailed examination is order to arrive at a documentation of a patients case.

E. The function of the independent reviewer does not end upon arrival at a medical assessment report. It moves on to include specific obligation to the referring party about the report, the patient, his recommendations, and other conditions necessary for the party to determine course of action.

F. In terms of report generation, independent reviewers must be specific enough and use a language understandable to a non-medically-trained person.

by: Rebecca Glessner

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