Medical Review Panel information for physicians and chiropractors

An worker or a deceased worker’s dependant applying for a Medical Review Panel examination may ask for your help.

The Medical Review Panel is the final step in our appeal process. Once a panel is convened, the panel may ask you to make any representation to the panel they consider advisable. 

The request for a Medical Review Panel must be related to a valid medical question regarding the greater debilitating effects of the area of a work-related injury than has been accepted by the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB). The medical question you have must have arisen from the position taken by the Board Appeal Tribunal in their decision. After reviewing the Board Appeal Tribunal’s decision with your patient, a Medical Review Panel application can be submitted for one or more of the following reasons:

• Your patient suffered a greater functional impairment than decided by the Board Appeal Tribunal.
• Your patient suffered a greater limitation in working capacity than decided by the Board Appeal Tribunal.
• Your patient should have been granted compensation for a longer period than allowed by the Board Appeal Tribunal.
• The Board Appeal Tribunal’s decision was based on a physician’s report that was wrong or incomplete.

You are responsible for completing the Enabling Certificate for Medical Review Panel examination. You can obtain a copy of an enabling certificate from our board services department. The certificate must include the following information:

• The medical question from the Board Appeal Tribunal’s decision that you disagree with.
• The reason you disagree with this medical decision.
• Medical research that supports your opinion or the supporting opinion of another physician. The medical research can be from medical literature or journals on the medical issue in question.

Once we receive your patient’s application and your completed enabling certificate, the Board Appeal Tribunal will determine whether there is sufficient information in the enabling certificate for a Medical Review Panel to be arranged. The Board Appeal Tribunal’s decision as to whether a Medical Review Panel can proceed will be communicated to your patient in writing along with reasons for the decision. If the Medical Review Panel can proceed, board services will then send your patient a list of appropriate physicians who may sit on the panel. Your patient can then choose physicians for their panel examination.

Please note that if you complete the enabling certificate, you may not sit as a member of your patient’s Medical Review Panel.

Once your patient gives us their choice of physicians to sit on the panel, those physicians are contacted and if they agree to sit, the chairperson sets a date, time and location for the panel examination. We then provide the members of the Medical Review Panel with all relevant medical documents from your patient’s claim file.

The panel can order any tests they feel necessary to reach a decision.

The Medical Review Panel, after the examination, will provide a decision to the Board Appeal Tribunal stating:

1. The condition of the worker.
2. The fitness of the worker for employment.
3. If the worker is found unfit to work, the cause of that inability to work.
4. The nature and degree of any limitation in the worker’s capacity to work caused by the injury for which he claims compensation.
5. The extent of any permanent functional impairment caused by the injury.
6. Any further medical matters that any member of the Medical Review Panel considers to be pertinent to the claim.

When they provide us with their decision, board services will inform your patient of the decision within 10 days of receiving the decision. The Medical Review Panel’s decision is binding on your patient and on us.

If the application and the certificate do not qualify, you may submit another certificate on behalf of your patient. You can ask our chief medical officer (CMO) or board services’ staff to review your certificate and explain how our decision was reached and what information would be helpful to include in your patient’s application. You can reach our CMO at 306.787.4370.

Should there be a fee for completion of the enabling certificate, an invoice can be submitted to board services for payment. Please refer to this link for fee codes and rates: Health-care disciplines information.

If you are a member of a Medical Review Panel, here are your responsibilities.