IWCC Approves PPP Notification Form & Changes Fee Schedule Regions

There were two major announcements that came out of the IWCC Medical Fee Advisory Board's October 18 meeting.

First, the Board approved its HB 1698-mandated Preferred Provider Program (PPP) employee notification form. The Board made a final change to the proposed form at the meeting, and it approved the modified form for release to the public. It will be available on the IWCC's website in the near future.

The Medical Fee Advisory Board also approved a second document that will appear on the IWCC's website as well. This document is an example of the type of information employers could provide employees to educate them about a PPP before an injury; however, this particular document is not mandatory.

There is only one IWCC PPP notification form required by HB 1698. After an employee reports an injury, the employer with a PPP must provide the employee with the PPP notification form promulgated by the IWCC. An employer with a PPP is allowed to notify its employees about the program at any time, but an employer with a PPP is required to provide the IWCC's PPP injury notification form to an employee after the employee's report of injury.

Second, the methodology for calculating the new fee schedule regions changed. At the September Medical Fee Advisory Board meeting, the Board voted to utilize a weighted average, by geozip population, to calculate the new 14 hospital regions and 4 non-hospital regions. However, at yesterday's meeting, Chairman Weisz announced that the IWCC will utilize a straight average, without weighting, to collapse the current geozip fee schedule amounts into the 1/1/2012 fee schedule regions. There were no further updates on when the new regions' fee schedule amounts would appear on the IWCC's medical fee schedule lookup.