The Cervical Spine Is Added to the Delaware Practice Guidelines, Effective June 1, 2009

On June 1 the Health Care Advisory Panel announced that the cervical spine would be added as a Practice Guidelines classification of injury pursuant to 19 Delaware Code Section 2322C.  Health Care Practice Guidelines have been adopted and apply to all treatment rendered after the effective date of May 23, 2008 irrespective of the date of injury.  When the Practice Guidelines were initially implemented as of May 2008, the covered injury classes were limited to the following: carpal tunnel syndrome; chronic pain; cumulative trauma disorder; low back; and shoulder.  With the addition of the cervical spine, there are now six covered injuries and it has been announced that Guidelines are being developed for the lower extremities with the hope that these will be available some time in 2010.

 Prior to the enactment of a statutory amendment to 19 Delaware Code Section 2322 (the medical treatment and provision statute) in January 2007,  Delaware was subject to virtually no constraints or cost-containment mechanisms with regard to medical charges in the workers' compensation arena.  Sometimes referred to as any "anything goes" jurisdiction, Delaware was an attractive forum for out-of-state providers to establish satellite offices.  With the enactment of a system of Practice Guidelines and Utilization Review, as well as a Fee Schedule, as of May 2008, the potential for "outlier" charges has been eliminated and  it is anticipated that medical treatment expense litigation will eventually diminish, as the prior nebulous standard of "reasonable and necessary" will only apply to cases involving treatment for non-Practice Guidelines classes of injury or for medical treatment rendered prior to May 23, 2008.