The Ministry of Justice is proposing to increase fees for medical reporting on whiplash cases and to make it easier to qualify to do the work.
Consultation was launched yesterday on a number of revisions to the medical reporting process for road traffic accident claims, which is handled through the MedCo organisation.
These are now essential for anyone making a soft tissue injury claim worth up to £5,000 through the Official Injury Claim portal.
But with medical fixed fees having been unchanged for eight years and a high criteria for being eligible to write these reports, numbers of practitioners doing the work has decreased, at the same time as the volume of claims has fallen.
The MoJ said today: ‘The Government understands that there have been increasing financial pressures on the sector over the last two years following the implementation of the whiplash reforms and the more recent wider economic conditions.
‘Therefore, we have decided that it is an appropriate time to consult on a number of medico-legal reporting issues related to the MedCo process, fixed cost medical reports and the implementation of the OIC service.’
The MoJ proposes that the fee for an initial report from a MedCo accredited medical expert would increase from £180 to £210. Other fees for surgeon, consultant, GP and physiotherapist reports would also go up by similar proportions.
The consultation noted that the continuing functioning of around 140 medical reporting organisations in this market indicated that the £180 fee still covered the level of work required.
‘However, it is likely that reduced volumes of claims and outside factors such as inflation and its subsequent impact on the cost of living means that the margins have been reduced.’
The MoJ stated that the main argument against extending the current fees regime is that it could have a negative impact through increased costs to insurers who ultimately fund the reports. A decision will be made on fees taking account of the ‘overall financial impact’ on the sector.
Since 2020, there has been a decline from 11 tier one and 40 tier two MROs to 10 tier one and 28 tier two MROs authorised and operational on MedCo. Of these, eight tier one and 18 tier two MROs have also opted to provide medical reports to unrepresented claimants making claims via OIC.
Currently, the qualifying criteria require tier one MROs to show they have the capacity to process 40,000 medical reports a year and to have 225 active experts on their panel. The MoJ said these figures are designed to be challenging but having looked at the falling claims volumes of the last two years they can be reduced. The proposal is to reduce the annual capacity to 28,000 reports and bring the required number of experts down to 175.
Other proposals include making claimants and their lawyers wait for insurers to confirm liability decisions before instructing a selected expert, and requiring those lawyers to use OIC to source medical report providers rather than use MedCo directly.
The consultation closes on 10 October.
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