“Over the moon”… How innovation in medical opinion services leads to better outcomes

When our Executive General Manager, Sam Norton, was recently invited to speak as part of an innovation panel at the ALUCA NSW professional development day, she appreciated the chance to take stock.

The brief was to talk about ‘challenging the approach to the traditional independent medical opinion’.

mlcoa has built its business, a great reputation and many careers on the traditional independent medical opinion. It’s such an important service. It helps people and organisations solve health problems and get better outcomes.

Sometimes ‘traditional’ is exactly what’s needed, so that’s what we deliver.

Other times, a rethink of the independent medical opinion process, or how it’s used, leads to even better outcomes. Innovation is often at its most powerful when it’s a tweak here and there, and the attitude of always seeking to improve.

And that’s just what mlcoa has done with two of its newer services. Sam told the attendees about two services that have built upon the traditional model of the medical opinion, adapting it to new uses and in the process gaining even better outcomes for people.

• Our GPS2 service originated in South Australia, addressing a specific need, and it’s proven so helpful that we are now offering it across Australia. Essentially, it’s a new way of working with treating doctors (normally a GP – thus the name of the service!), linking both that doctor and the person they are supporting with a prompt expert medical opinion. It’s best used when the diagnosis is ambiguous or the person’s recovery is not going as expected. In our first 125 cases, we saw clarity on treatment (65% of all cases resulted in revised treatment, and 83% of psychiatric cases were revised), work capacity (66% of cases were revised) and specific work restrictions (71% change). What’s more, the satisfaction is very high with 100% of insurers, 98% of GPs and 98% of the people who were injured satisfied with the service.
• We also offer a second opinion service for both the life insurance and private health sectors. This can offer great comfort to people who are dealing with serious medical conditions and can offer them evidence that they are making the right choice about treatments and surgical interventions. The second opinion specialist reviews the evidence and may agree or offer alternative treatment suggestions. Both are highly valuable when it comes to offering peace of mind. One private health insurance application of this service has resulted in a Net Promoter Score of 79+, which is extremely high. The people in receipt of the service have said: “Report was very very helpful and helped make a timely decision. Loved the service.” “This was a great alternative. Specialist opinion was great… over the moon with the program.”

‘Over the moon’ is all we can hope for. If you want to learn more about GPS2, the Second Opinion Service or how mlcoa can tailor a medical opinion service to suit your needs, please get in touch.