Medical Services and Fee Schedule

The Medical Services and Fee Schedule Section administers the Kansas Department of Labor’s Workers Compensation Division’s fee schedule for provision of medical services to injured workers. The section revises the fee schedule on a biennial basis to assure that the fee schedule is reasonable and promotes health care cost containment, yet ensures the availability of necessary treatment and care for injured employees.

This section also administers a plan for health care services utilization and peer review, and reviews disputed charges or services rendered by health care providers. The Medical Services and Fee Schedule Section functions as a liaison between health care providers, attorneys, employers, employees and insurance carriers or self-insured businesses.

Medical Fee Disputes are submitted through the OSCAR system by the external requestors. This is a simple two-step webform that will allow you to better monitor the progress of the dispute, including automatic emial updates when the status changes. It is also very secure and fully HIPPA compliant. You can find help on submitting disputes through OSCAR by going to https://www.oscar.dol.ks.gov/help.

For questions, please contact (785) 296-4000 (option 8, then option 2), or Jassina Washington at (800) 332-0353 or jassina.washington@ks.gov.

The March 29, 2019 edition of the Schedule of Medical Fees is now available for download. The 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017 editions will continue to be available for an indefinite period of time for your convenience in billing services provided between January 1, 2010 and the end of 2016.

Quick Reference Tables (QRT) have been discontinued beginning with the 2014 edition. Unit values and conversion factors will no longer be presented; the maximum fees shown in the main body of the schedule will all be computed.

The Quick Reference Table online search engine feature has been retained, however, and upgraded to use the new 2017 values. The upgraded QRT now allows you to obtain the appropriate fee values by selecting, in one place, the year of the fee schedule edition in effect for the time period covered by your billing. January 1, 2010, January 1, 2011, January 1, 2012, January 1, 2014, January 1, 2015 and January 1, 2017 values will continue to be available online for an indefinite period of time for your convenience.

Printing Note: When printing a specific page or pages from any of these documents, your printer will use the page number shown in the box at the bottom of the Acrobat Reader window, not the page number shown on the actual document. For example, if you want to print pages 80 and 81 in the 2015 Schedule of Medical Fees, you would tell the printer to print pages 84-85. If printing an unnumbered page, again use the page number shown in the box at the top of the Adobe Reader window. 

For easier navigation through the Kansas WC Schedule of Medical Fees and Kansas WC Quick Reference Table files, go to the Bookmark pane along the left edge of the Reader window. The bookmarks take you to the first page of the named section in the Schedule.

The Kansas Department of Labor, Workers Compensation Division has adopted the Work Loss Data Institute's Official Disability Guidelines - Treatment in Workers Comp (ODG) as the standard of reference for evidence-based medicine used in caring for injured workers. The Work Loss Data Institute is an independent database development company focused on workplace health and productivity.

Note: All monthly updates from February 2008 to the present are included in both the Excel and PDF files.

History

The Workers Compensation Division conducted an extensive and independent evaluation of medical treatment guidelines commonly used in workers compensation including both ODG and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Guidelines. Public hearings were held on the subject and ultimately the decision was made to name a single guideline - ODG. As indicated in the new Schedule of Medical Fees, effective January 1, 2008, "The Official Disability Guidelines-Treatment in Workers Compensation (ODG), published by the Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI), is to be recognized as the primary standard of reference, at the time of treatment, in determining the frequency and extent of services presumed to be medically necessary and appropriate for compensable injuries under the Kansas Workers Compensation Act, or in resolving such matters in the event a dispute arises."

Benefits of Adopting ODG

By adopting the Official Disability Guidelines (ODG), the Workers Compensation Division can ensure the latest available medical evidence is used in making treatment decisions for workers injured on the job in Kansas. In addition, Workers Compensation expenditures will remain focused on the goal of recovery and the best utilization of the available medical services.

Kansas is one of many U.S. states and Canadian provinces to adopt ODG, as the movement towards evidence-based medicine in workers compensation continues to gain momentum. Most unique about the ODG approach is that links are provided from each recommendation to the supporting medical evidence, provided in abstract form, so it can be consulted directly. In addition, ODG conducts a rigorous and ongoing update process. Finally, ODG is comprehensive and multidisciplinary in scope, covering conditions both acute and chronic, including virtually every therapy commonly used in workers compensation, and representative of all medical specialties active in the system.

Information on Obtaining ODG and Updates

To encourage its widespread use, Work Loss Data Institute is offering a substantial discount on ODG Treatment in Workers' Comp for all Health care providers operating in the Kansas workers compensation system. Updates are normally provided via the ODG subscriber site, which contains the complete ODG guidelines. Due to the importance of ongoing updates, the cost to access the updates via the ODG subscriber site, for states that have adopted ODG (including Kansas), is 50 percent off the regular annual subscription price. The annual three-volume textbook set is also available to Kansans for 25 percent off the regular price. To receive the discount, Kansans only need to use a Kansas billing or shipping address when placing the order.

Because Kansas has adopted the ODG, we are able to provide updates (not the complete guidelines) to our medical and physician community at no cost we will post. Each month a new updated table in Excel and PDF formats is posted on this page. Previous updates will be available for the 11 months prior to the current release so that at any time a full year's changes will be available.

Note: The information provided above is based on material copyrighted by Work Loss Data Institute . The Work Loss Data Institute has provided permission in writing for the division to use the material as presented above.