The California Workers' Compensation Institute has issued a new study examining the development and history of evidence-based medicine (EBM) as a tool for assuring appropriate, quality medical care, and its potential for containing treatment costs and improving California workers' comp patient outcomes. SB 228, signed in October, requires the state to adopt EBM guidelines for workers' comp by December 2004 to control overutilization of medical services, set parameters for effective care, and to reduce treatment costs. The law also made treatment protocols published by medical specialty societies admissible before the WCAB, and made medical utilization guidelines presumptively correct in regard to the extent and scope of treatment, with guidelines of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) given the presumption until a new schedule is adopted.
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