The question is, “Is there anything right?”
I wrote two previous columns on ICBC’s financial woes —
one on a seniors discount that costs an estimated $100 million annually, another on
the climbing cost of litigation.
Those were but two contributors to the corporation’s financial woes.
There are many strands that one can pull to explain ICBC’s unravelling.
Readers responded. Some, no surprise, were civilians complaining
about what they felt was ICBC’s unfair tactics. But several were from
insiders to the process — lawyers, doctors and claim adjusters. They
identified a problem affecting ICBC’s bottom line the public never hears
about.
It was the high cost of medical reports.
Wrote one senior ICBC injury adjuster, whose job is to settle lawyer-represented claims:
“Lawyers routinely hire experts (doctors) to produce reports to
support how badly injured the individual is/was from the accident. It is
quite common to have two to five different experts report on a single
file. These experts charge between $4,000-$6,000 to examine the patient
and write a report. ICBC will have to hire their own experts, typically
one to two per file for the same costs as above.
“We often settle a claim, for example, between $50,000 to $100,000
and then pay on top of that between $30,000 and $40,000 for costs and
disbursements. So not only are the lawyers making tidy sums, but the
medical experts make a fair chunk off the litigation process as well.”.....
........There is a large number of medical professionals in B.C. that are making
well in excess of $1 million per year from writing medical reports now.......
Source/more:
http://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/pete-mcmartin-medical-reports-make-up-major-chunk-of-icbc-expenditure-insiders-reveal?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter&utm_term=Autofeed#link_time=1481157840
