About BusinessWorks

BusinessWorks' Workers' Comp PPO Receives State Certification in Erie County

NEWS RELEASE — October 17, 2007

BUFFALO, NY — Lifetime Health BusinessWorks^SM, a workers’ compensation preferred provider organization (PPO,) has received certification in Erie County from the New York State Department of Health and is now fully operational. BusinessWorks’ integrated care model has proven to help employers reduce medical and indemnity costs while returning their employees to productivity sooner.

The BusinessWorks PPO assists injured employees by providing proven and experienced medical management of each case. Employees are immediately linked with a certified nurse case manager who oversees all aspects of the patient’s care, from scheduling doctors’ appointments and speeding approvals to communicating with the employer and finding alternate work assignments.

In BusinessWorks’ model, a nurse case manager serves as a single point of contact among employees, employers and third parties. “We are the people connecting all the dots,” said Marsha Fitzgerald, RN, COHN-S/CM, program director, who added that the relationship between nurse case managers and injured workers reduces a great deal of confusion commonly associated with workers’ compensation.

BusinessWorks helps businesses by forming an immediate contact between injured workers and physicians in the community, providing prompt medical care. “Employees who use the program get access to medical care with practically no wait time,” said Fitzgerald.

Employer clients access real-time information about their injured employees and the treatments they have received through a secure Web-based tool, giving the employer the ability to anticipate when the injured employee may be able to return to work.

Lifetime Health also operates BusinessWorks in the Rochester area, although the program is served by a different provider network. Providers at HealthWorks-WNY in Erie County offer occupational/industrial medicine, such as pre-employment physicals and drug screenings, to employers as an additional component of BusinessWorks.

Employers interested in BusinessWorks can call 585/339-4038 to learn more about how the program can benefit their business. 

# # #