Matheson Philosophy on Workplace Safety and Work Injury Evaluation

Thinking About Expanding Your Practice? Let's Discuss...

  

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

 delicious  

  

We have had two recent posts on Matheson's LinkedIn Group on the topic of expanding your practice. Here is an example:

"Hi, I currently specialize in FCE/FCA and will be expanding out to include post-offer and other employer services. I wanted to network and get some advices on setting up new business from the industry veterans."

To start the discussion:

There are many, many things to do before you commit money or distract your energy to the expansion.

First, as these folks on LinkedIn have already done, start conversations with people who have been there. This is probably the single best investment you can make.

Next, work toward defining your goal. Is your goal a certain lifestyle, a certain relationship or a certain dollar amount? Are you looking to change your practice so your day is less challenging? Do you want to expand your skills so they are more transportable? Or do you want to maintain your current life while "putting your eggs into more than one basket"? You can't really make an informed decision and create a plan until you have the vision. You can always change the plan...

If your base is Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE), you have three basic options:

1. Expand into higher levels of FCE service. This means building referrals from attorneys for high-dollar cases (non-workers comp) and ERISA cases. The high-dollar cases will be ADAAA-related and personal injury/product liability.
   
   
2. Expand into post-offer employment testing. This is a relatively easy option since you already have FCE skills.

Both of the above options require education. You need to know the details of Federal Rule 702 for attorney and ERISA referrals. You need to know the new Americans with Disabilities Act as Amended (ADA, now called ADAAA) for post-offer referrals. Rule 702 links to ADAAA because you will be defending under federal rules if you ever have a post-offer challenge. (Notice how it all ties together!)

If you want to expand your skills beyond FCE you can also look at Essential Function Job Analysis (EFJA) - which fits nicely with high-dollar cases, ADAAA cases and post-offer testing - or Ergonomic Evaluation. My inclination would be to go with EFJA as it fits so many other services. Ergo eval is like starting a whole new career.

So, as a conversation starter:

• Talk with others
  
  
• Get clear on your vision
  
  
• Start with market exploration or education

Join in on the conversation here on the blog or jump over to our LinkedIn group and let's continue the conversation there if you'd like!

Stay in touch with us on: