Voodoo Science? Dr. Christopher Brigham and AMA Guidelines Invade New York
A potential war between injured workers and the New York State Insurance Department is on the horizon! During the recent workers' compensation reform negotiations, all the negotiators from the Governor's office, Speaker Silver's office and Senate Majority Leader Bruno's office promised that "AMA Guidelines will never come to NY!". Well, word on the street is that the Governor's man heading the Medical Guidelines Task Force just hired Dr. Christopher Brigham, the insurance and defense industry's best friend, to implement the AMA guidelines in New York.
A little about Dr. Christopher R. Brigham. He is an entrepreneur with numerous sophisticated websites selling his IME services, click here, here, here for a few of the "classier" ones. He hangs out in Hawaii and peddles his new "Sixth Edition of the AMA Guidelines to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment" in a nice little cottage industry he has carved out for himself and his family (Mindy Brigham is "Director of Marketing"). Go to his website - you can fill up your "Cart"! Somehow, he duped the AMA into buying into his biased opinions on "impairment ratings", much to the embarrassment of the AMA. The fact is that he is an injured worker's "worst nightmare IME" (insurance company medical examiner). He is the proud author of "Symptom Magnification, Deception and Malingering", the bible for all insurance company doctors out to hurt injured workers.
Dr. Brigham still performs insurance company medical exams in Hawaii (nice work if you can get it, assuming you are willing to make a deal with the Devil). Check out this "sample Brigham IME report" of his regarding an injured worker who had surgery for "cubital tunnel syndrome" on his dominant left arm. Despite a 10 centimeter scar on the worker's right elbow, insurance company fave Dr. Brigham opines that the worker has a " 2 percent impairment to the Hand!" . I kid you not! Dr. Brigham also does live "webinars" for ACOEM, the discredited organization which represents primarily the interests of industry and insurance companies.
Under the current objective New York Workers' Compensation Guidelines of 1996, this serious injury would appropriately translate into at least a 15-20% schedule loss of use to the "Arm". This tells you everything you need to know about the AMA Guides and Dr. Brigham - it all about reducing compensation monetary to injured workers awards! See this press release from Dr. Brigham about insurance companies saving money using his methods. See his article from "For The Defense" (a pro-worker publication...) here.
Dr. Christopher Brigham is one sharp expert witness. His tape, "How to Be An Effective Medical Witness" (see below) teaches insurance company doctors to "properly state your opinion using 'magic' legal words", "humanize your testimony", "deal with trick questions and trial tactics of attorneys", "answer questions about your fee" and "deal with an abusive attorney". I hope none of us "abusive attorneys" run across the good doctor while strolling the white sands of Hawaii - he knows how to "deal with us"!
In a recent Internet radio interview, Dr. Brigham stated that the new "6th Edition of the AMA Guides" would lower impairment ratings from prior editions of the Guides. He gave an example of his own "partial medial menistectomy" knee surgery. Quite generously, Dr. Brigham gave himself a "one percent impairment" to the lower extremity. Again, under current New York Medical Guidelines, such an injury would result in at least a 15% loss of use. Using Dr. Brigham's specious methods, an injured worker in New York would lose tens of thousands of dollars. But, then again, remember that the AMA Guidelines as written By Dr. Brigham are all about saving insurance companies money - not about credible medicine.
The best example of this is the startling fact that the purported "big accomplishment" of the "Sixth Edition" is that they will no longer use "range of motion" in determining impairment! Are they serious? Tell that to the treating orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors in New York - Brigham will be laughed all the way back to Hawaii.
Bottom Line - AMA Guidelines in New York is a non-starter. The Governor's team is too smart to bring in a biased "defense medical examiner" like Dr. Brigham to mess with the New York Workers' Compensation Medical Guidelines. It would be another drivers' license-like albatross for the Governor Spitzer. Just look at what recently happened in South Carolina when the Governor there tried to implement AMA Guidelines. The medical profession and labor movement in New York would crush Dr. Brigham and his co-horts, and find allies in both the NY Assembly and the Senate in doing so. The WCA suggests that the good doctor remain in his Hawaiian bungalow counting his numerous coconuts. Stay tuned...
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Unfortunately, AMA could happen here. We need to be proactive and mount a rapid and vigorous campaign to make sure NY does not become the next AMA state!
My guys will lose more benefits if these guidelines go threw. We are right behind you. Let me know what you need to fight this. I've got phone banks.
Their website is ama-assn.org. Many of our physicians do not belong to the AMA themselves. Check it yourself. Go to the AMA site, click on "Doctor Finder", look up your doctor and see if he or she is listed as a member.