ICBC Law

Further to my previous post on ICBC and high billing doctors I am pleased to report that ICBC has now published their 2007 “statements and schedules of financial information“ which reveal, amongst other things, the “amounts paid to suppliers of goods and services in 2007“.

One of the ‘goods and services’ often purchased by ICBC is the “Independent Medical Exam”. This is done either to get an ‘independent’ opinion of the medical condition of someone seeking ‘no-fault benefits’ from ICBC, or, further to the Rules of Court which permit one side of a lawsuit to get an ‘independent’ exam addressing the medical condition of a plaintiff involved in an ICBC injury tort claim.

As an ICBC claims lawyer I find it interesting to see which doctors ICBC routinely uses to conduct these independent medical exams. From reviewing these annual reports it becomes clear that there is a small number of doctors who do a significant amount of work on behalf of ICBC.

As promised in my earlier blog, below are some of the highlights of the 2007 report of doctor billings:

Dr. Kevein Favero (Orthopedic Surgeon, Langley, BC): $188,814

Dr. N. K. Reebye (Physical Medecine and Rebabilitation, New Westminster): $339,243

Dr. Peter M. Rees (Neurologist, Burnaby): $215,788

Dr. J. F Schweigel (Orthopedic Surgeon) : $924,243

Dr. D. M. Laidlow: (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Westbank) $165,657

Dr. Robert W. McGraw: (Orthopedic Surgoen, Vancouver) $224,375

Dr. T O’Farrell: (Orthopedic Surgoen, Kelowna) $147,003

Dr. James Warren: (Orthopedic Surgoen, Victoria) $111,041

Dr. O. M. Sovio: (Orthopedic Surgeon, Abbotsford) $252,916

Dr. H. Davis: (Psychiatrist, Vancouver) $164,755

Dr. Marc Boyle (Orthopaedic Surgeon, North Vancouver) $353,822

Dr. Paul Bishop (Vancouver, BC) $357,358

Dr. Mark Crossman (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vancouver) $83,577

Dr. I. G. Dommisse (Orhopaedic Surgoen, New Westminster) $156,650

Dr. H. E. Hawk (Orthopedic Surgeon, Vancouver) $280,000

Another doctor whose billings jumped out at me was Dr. Jeffrey Rostvig who billed ICBC $96,605 in 2007. You will note that most of the above doctors are specialists of some kind. This makes sense, typically ICBC likes to get an opinion from an orthopaedic surgeon or some other highly qualified specialist. If this doctor disagrees with an injured person’s GP ICBC can point to the greater qualifications of their expert in justifying their decision to rely on that opinion. The reason why Dr. Rostvig’s billings jumped out at me is because, as far as I can tell by checking the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons website, he appears to be a GP without further specialization. He appears to be one of the highest, if not highest billing GP to ICBC.

I repeat my advice that if ICBC has sent you to an ‘independent medical examiner’ who tells you that you are not injured or that your injuries are not related to your ICBC claim and your own doctors strongly disagree it may be reasurring to know that you are not alone. Expert witnesses at times do cross the line and lose their objectivity. There are certainly instances where doctors have advocated on behalf of their client instead of providing objective opinion evidence and our BC Courts have certainly come down hard on such unhelpful behaviour in the past.

Tags: doctor billings, expert witnesses, free consultation, icbc advice, icbc claims lawyer, icbc doctor, independent medical exam, injury claims lawyer

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.