Corpus Christi, TX

Employer Health Register

February 11, 2008 – Encinitas, CA – Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI) announces the release of the 2008 ODG product line, including the 13^th annual edition of Official Disability Guidelines and the 6^th annual edition of ODG Treatment in Workers’ Comp.

With its rigorous and ongoing update schedule based on strict principles of evidence-based methodology, including the annual release and publication of new editions, the ODG product line remains the industry leader in disability duration and medical treatment guidelines for workers’ compensation and non-occupational disability cases.

The 2008 editions in the ODG product line contain fully updated and expanded Treatment Planning, Procedure Summary, and Return-To-Work sections, including the addition and review of new studies conducted worldwide on medical treatment and lost time data gathered from the CDC, OSHA and actual workers’ compensation carriers.  New features include the “ODG Treatment UR Advisor”, available on the Web version of ODG Treatment in Workers’ Comp. The UR Advisor maps procedure codes to diagnosis codes with data on incidence, frequency, number of visits and cost. Perhaps most important in the UR Advisor is the Bill Review Payment Flag, which combines recommendations from ODG Treatment in Workers’ Comp with actual claims data to indicate whether to approve payment on a bill or flag for physician review.

Patricia Whelan, publisher of ODG and Chief Financial Officer of Work Loss Data Institute, remarks, “Clearly with this 2008 release, the ODG database has emerged as the one definitive gateway to all the necessary normative and evidence-based information needed for timely and appropriate care, cost effective and favorable outcomes, state or jurisdictional compliance and prompt return to work and functionality.”

Unlike other guidelines currently available for workers’ comp, ODG provides links from each recommendation to summaries of the supporting medical evidence, so it can be consulted and quoted directly. ODG is also unique in the sense that it is both comprehensive and multidisciplinary in scope, covering conditions both acute and chronic, including virtually every therapy commonly used in workers’ comp, and representative of each of the various medical specialties active in the system.

Evidence-based, independent and easy to use, the complete 2008 ODG Treatment in Workers’ Comp is available for $325 on the Web or in textbook format, with multi-user discounts available. Official Disability Guidelines 2008 (without the treatment guides) is available alone at the cost of $195. Raw data files for benchmarking or integration with internal software applications are also available. Contact WLDI for licensing fees.

For more information, go to www.worklossdata.com or contact Work Loss Data Institute, publisher of the ODG product line. WLDI is an independent database development company focused on workplace health and productivity, based in Encinitas, CA.