Personal Injury Assessment Services
MLRSA offers a range of services from Independent Medical Examinations, Fitness for Work and Worksite Assessments to Earning Capacity Assessments.
Independent Medical Examination (IME)
An IME is an impartial assessment of an individual by an independent medical examiner to determine a claimant’s diagnosis, need for continued treatment, degree and permanency of disability, whole person impairment, or ability to return to work, to assist with their personal injury claim.
Injury Management Consultation (IMC)
An IMC is an assessment of an individual by an Injury Management Consultant to assess the situation, examine the worker (if necessary), and discuss possible solutions with all parties (including the Nominated Treating Doctor). An IMC is an assessment used to mediate a solution to problems in complex return to work and injury management plans.
Psychiatric Evaluations
An impartial assessment of an individual by an independent psychiatric examiner to determine an individual’s psychological diagnosis, need for continued treatment, degree and permanency of disability, whole person impairment, or ability to return to work, to assist with their personal injury claim.
Clinical Psychological Assessments
Clinical psychological assessments are often required to investigate the presence, nature and/or severity of so-called reactive psychological/psychiatric injuries, such as Acute Stress Disorder, PTSD, Adjustment Disorder, other forms of anxiety disorder and different forms of depressive disorder.
Claims for such conditions are normally seen as a result of exposure to allegedly traumatic events such as motor vehicle accidents or work-related accidents and other allegedly traumatic work-related experiences and/or circumstances. However, clinical psychological assessments are also often necessary in claims involving reported pain and physical disability in order to evaluate for the potential contribution of psychological and/or motivational factors in the report of pain and physical disability. Furthermore, clinical psychological assessment may be required in order to attempt to differentiate between subject injury related psychological factors and familial, inherent and/or otherwise subject injury unrelated, including pre-existing, psychological and/or personality factors. Also, clinical psychological assessments may be required to assess for psychological/psychiatric factors affecting testamentary capacity, competence to instruct legal representatives, and/or competence to plead in legal proceedings.
Clinical psychological assessments involve a detailed clinical interview which covers pre and post-injury aspects of the history, including:
- Birth and development
- Familial factors
- Psychosocial history
- Medical/injury history unrelated to the subject claim
- Substance Use History
- Psychological/psychiatric and neuropsychological history unrelated to the subject claim
- Occupational history
- Educational history
- Medication intake
- Subject injury history, including a description of events and circumstances said to have resulted in injury
- Post-subject injury course and treatment
- Current functioning and ongoing residual symptoms/difficulties
Clinical psychological assessments also includes:
- psychometric and clinical evaluation of personality and emotional functioning,
- pain behaviour and self-reported pain induced disability,
- symptom report validity and performance validity.
Clinical psychological assessments also involve a detailed review of all available documentation, comparison of information from various sources, and integration of this with the history provided by the examinee and the psychometric test data and comments on potential discrepancies and/or the need for clarification.
If appropriate and required, Whole Person Impairment (WPI) ratings can be provided, as well as, if appropriate and required, an opinion with regards to vocational potential (from a psychological and neuropsychological perspective)
Assessment time up to 5 hours (depending on examinee variables and case complexity).
Neuropsychological Assessments
Neuropsychological assessments are often required to investigate the presence, nature and/or severity of traumatic head/brain injury and other forms of cerebral insult/brain trauma and the effects of such injuries on intellectual, cognitive, learning, behavioural, personality, affective and psychological functioning.
These are injury claims normally seen as a result of involvement in motor vehicle accidents, work related accidents, some public liability related injury events and some medical negligence matters. However, neuropsychological assessment may also be called for in cases requiring evaluation of an individual’s testamentary capacity, competence to instruct legal representatives, and competence to plead in legal proceedings.
Neuropsychological assessments involve a detailed clinical interview which covers pre and post-injury aspects of the history, including:
- Birth and development
- Familial factors
- Psychosocial history
- Medical/injury history unrelated to the subject claim
- Substance Use History
- Psychological/psychiatric and neuropsychological history unrelated to the subject claim
- Occupational history
- Educational history
- Medication intake
- Subject injury history, including a description of injuries
- Post-subject injury course and treatment
- Current functioning and ongoing residual symptoms/difficulties
Neuropsychological assessments also involve extensive psychometric and clinical evaluation, including psychometric testing of:
- Various intellectual, cognitive, memory, information processing and executive functions
- Literacy
- Personality/emotional functioning
- pain behaviour/report and self-reported pain induced disability
- symptom report validity and performance validity.
Neuropsychological Assessments also involves a detailed review of all available documentation, comparison of information from various sources, and integration of this with the history provided by the examinee and the psychometric test data and comments on potential discrepancies and/or the need for clarification.
If appropriate and required, whole person impairment ratings can also be provided, as well as an opinion with regards to vocational potential (from a psychological and neuropsychological perspective)
Assessment time is up to 7 hours (depending on examinee variables and case complexity). This may involve a combination of clinical psychological (see above) and neuropsychological assessment techniques.
Fitness for Work Assessment
Recommendations are provided to assist in determining an individual’s functional capacity to perform their role, and their availability to return to work following an injury or illness.
Worksite Assessment
Worksite assessments, also known as workplace evaluations, are onsite assessments of an employee’s pre-injury duties or suitable duties.
The medical expert or allied health professional will look to identify suitable duties and assess the physical and/or psychological demands of the duties, as well as provide recommendations of appropriate workplace modifications to accommodate a claimants current capacity for work.
Employability Assessment
The goal of an employability assessment is to review a client’s education, training and experience in order to identify suitable employment options that are available within the client’s local labour market and for which they would be reasonably suited. The client’s vocational, physical and or psychological status along with the current labour market are considered when recommending suitable vocational options.
Activity of Daily Living Assessment
An activities of daily living (ADL) assessment analyses an individual’s functional performance in the areas of personal, self-care, domestic and general home maintenance activities in and around the home. They will identify task performance, need for equipment, domestic assistance needs and whether home modifications are required.
Panel Assessments
The panel assessment process is based on a panel of doctors to review the facts at hand and come to an agreement.
File Reviews
An impartial assessment based on the best available evidence (information/papers only) and undertaken by an appropriately qualified and experienced medical specialist (who is not in treating relationship with the worker) for the purposes of providing information to assist with the personal injury matter.
Medication Review
A medication file review is the review of all medications being paid for on a claim. The specialist will review an individual’s medication.
A medication file review is the review of all medications being paid for on a claim. The specialist will review an individual’s medication to ensure it’s: claim related, not contraindicated with other medications, the correct dose, being charged to the insurer at a reasonable price, and if there are any other medication options available and also may make recommendations around long-term opioid use/opioid plans.
This report is similar to an IMC, as the specialist will contact the NTD to discuss medication uses, suggest non-addictive alternatives (if required), and discuss the necessary use of medications, as well as long term planning for medication reductions if at all possible.
Correctional – Prison Visits
Independent medical or psychological assessment of an individual currently incarcerated within a correctional facility. The appointment will take place within the relevant facility, and will need to be reviewed and confirmed with the specialist prior to booking.
Earning Capacity Assessments (ECA)
Assessment made up of two components:
1. Functional Capacity Evaluation
2. Vocational Evaluation
Assessment made up of two components:
- Functional Capacity Evaluation
An objective test of an individual’s capacity to perform work-related tasks. From these results, physical work abilities and limitations can be compared to a variety of job descriptions.
- Vocational Evaluation
Analyse an individual’s current skills and experience, set vocational goals and outline potential job options. Assessment considers the individual’s functional work capacity and identifies transferable skills, employment barriers and realistic job options for suitable employment. The assessment takes approximately three hours.
Early Intervention Assessments
An independent examination conducted to assist case managers identify the legitimacy of a claim, monitor return to work and efficacy of treatment. This assessment also helps to flag barriers that are preventing recovery and return to work
Independent Chiropractor Consultant (ICC)
Conducted by a Chiropractor, this assessment is utilised to review whether the present treatment is still reasonable and necessary, and recommend alternate treatment if required, identify barriers in the return to work plan and adjust the Return to Work outcomes if applicable.
Independent Physiotherapy Consultant (IPC)
Conducted by a Physiotherapist, this assessment is utilized to review whether the present treatment is still reasonable and necessary, and recommend alternate treatment if required, identify barriers in the return to work plan and adjust the Return to Work outcomes if applicable. The Physiotherapist can also review any requests for equipment to determine if they are reasonable and necessary.