Liability insurers and adjusters are pressing ahead with plans to establish a formal register of case managers involved in the rehabilitation of personal injury claimants.
The move would formalise standards in an industry that uses a wide range of professions, including employment consultants, rehabilitation managers, and nursing staff. No official figures are available for the precise number of people working in the rehabilitation industry or their qualifications.
However, the industry is fast coming of age as insurers realise they can achieve significant savings in compensation settlements by helping to improve the lives of claimants with personal injuries, by, for example, getting them back to work.
The Bodily Injury Claims Management Association (Bicma) is the provisional title for the body, which will carry out the registration work after its expected launch this summer. A high profile figure in the rehabilitation industry is expected to be named soon as the body's first president.
A steering group, which includes Property and Casualty Services (PCS), Crawford and Company and insurers Swiss Re and AIG, is helping the new body get off the ground.
Seaton Small, pro-care manager at PCS, said the proposed register of care managers would be similar to the official list of expert witnesses used by law firms and the courts.
“The register would enable solicitors and insurers to check the credentials of people calling themselves rehabilitation care managers,” he said.
