Specialty Solutions Spotlight: The Importance of Specialty Solutions for Workers' Compensation
Donita Stacker
Director of Operations, Apricus, an Enlyte company
Why are specialty solutions important in workers’ comp?
From scheduling services to streamlining patient care, specialty programs allow you to focus on what really matters—driving better outcomes for injured employees. Partnering with Apricus, an experienced specialty solutions provider, gives you a one-stop-shop experience for all the equipment and services that an injured employee may need to help facilitate their recovery.
We can help increase case efficiency and overall savings by offering a broad range of cost-effective local and national health care providers that cover many specialties. Our extensive specialty program ensures the needs of virtually any type of workers’ compensation case are met.
Apricus’ products and services include:
- Durable medical equipment
- Home health care
- Diagnostic/imaging services
- Medical transportation
- Interpretation/translation
- Catastrophic care
- Orthotics & prosthetics
- Hospital discharge planning
- Home/vehicle modifications
- Hearing aids
- Mobility devices
- Medical supplies
- Respiratory services
- Electrical stimulation devices
- Bone growth stimulation
- Facility care management
Effective specialty management can significantly impact patient recovery. You can focus on managing the claim, while trusting a dedicated expert with your specialty needs, ensuring appropriate utilization, facilitating greater speed and efficiency to meet injured employees’ needs and controlling cost.
Understanding the complexities surrounding specialty solutions gives you a greater understanding of the intricacies involved. If you are looking to initiate improvements in a specialty program, you want to assess the partnerships you currently have in place.
Here are five questions to ask yourself:
- Are your specialty service orders being fulfilled in a timely manner?
- Is an initial plan being outlined, providing ongoing communication and cost transparency along the way?
- Is a clinical patient-centric process in place to deliver optimal outcomes, cost savings and superior service?
- Are digital strategies used to streamline the process, provide full visibility and ensure nothing falls through the cracks?
- If issues arise, are all team members and the injured employee kept in the know to avoid surprises?
In addition, it’s imperative to ensure that all your program providers are meeting the highest standards. At Apricus, we require all providers to be evaluated and credentialed on a biannual basis. We provide feedback to our program providers to ensure compliance and customer satisfaction.
When it comes to specialty services, adjusters and case managers need to be informed so they don’t have to worry about whether services were arranged or not. Apricus’ care coordinators are proactive in working with adjusters and case managers and put the injured employee’s needs first. And if an issue arises, they ensure that continued communication occurs between the specialty partner, the service provider, the adjuster and the injured employee.
Utilizing Apricus gives you access to an established national program with provider relationships for all equipment and services as well as a single point of contact that can manage all your requirements, scheduling, and clinical oversight from one source. This results in improved workflows, timely delivery, cost savings and ultimately greater injured employee satisfaction.
This information is meant to serve as a general overview, and any specific questions should be fully reviewed with a health care professional or specialty service provider.
To make a referral for this service and others, call us today at 877.203.9899 or send an email to referrals@apricusinc.com.