Difficulties with Providence MCO

[Guest guest]

I have a young elite athlete who works as an instructional aide for a local

school district. He was injured on the job when a student let go of the

handrails while he was assisting the student with a wheelchair transfer in the

bathroom. He fell forward but managed to catch the student before he hit the

floor. Later that day he developed left S1 radiculitis and back pain that wakes

him up hourly. An MRI reveals a disc bulge at L4-5 and a fragmented vertically

displaced L5-S1 disc displacing the S1 nerve root on the left.

This young man had been training to try to make the Olympic Trials for the

marathon this year, but had to drop out due to a different injury, so he is

competing in distance running at a very high level. The list of neurosurgeons on

the Providence MCO panel is very short and the earliest a surgeon can see him in

April 5. I have informed the neurosurgeon that this is not a typical injured

worker case in hopes that he can adjust his schedule and get this young man in

faster before he has permanent nerve damage.

He has been getting better with chiropractic care for the last two weeks, but I

will have to hand off attending physician duties prior to April 5 due to that

stupid 18/60 rule. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to get him in to

another physician's office faster? His PCP is not on the MCO panel either and

refuses to deal with W/C.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

McCabe, DC, CCSP