Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

May/June, 1996

mdsi Joins NADE As Newest Corporate Member
by Donna Hilton, Publications Director

NADE WAS PROUD TO RECOGNIZE its newest corporate member at the Portland Training Conference. mdsi is a Utah corporation which began providing evaluations to the Utah DDS in 1986. Over the last nine years services have expanded into California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colorado, and Oklahoma. This corporation currently schedules over 4,000 evaluations per month for the DDS offices it serves.

Emphasis has always been to insure quality evaluations performed on a timely basis. The mdsi works hard to respond immediately to any issues or problems presented by the DDS staff. “mdsi growth has been carefully planned. Our philosophy is: never compromise quality, timeliness or responsiveness and to always make sure claimants are treated in a professional, courteous manner,” states George Powell, president of mdsi. Physicians who work for this corporation are provided thorough training and periodic seminars to keep them up on SSA regulatory changes. Complaints and requests for clarification are closely tracked. Clarification requests are typically less than 1.5% so, for every 100 exams, only 1.5 or less reports will require additional information. Complaints are rare, but Mr. Powell considers one complaint to be too many for mdsi’s goal.

Another goal of mdsi is to provide timely appointments, normally within ten days, and a turnaround time from date of exam to the final, signed report arriving at DDS is ten days.In some locations, a modem report is provided within five days of the exam to enable the examiner to begin working the case prior to receipt of the signed report. Also, in an effort to avoid “no-shows”, mdsi attempts telephone contact with the claimant to provide directions and answer any questions. Mr. Powell feels this has saved DDS processing time and reduced the number of “no-shows”, thereby insuring mdsi physicians have a full schedule.

In Denver and Sacramento mdsi has established its evaluation clinics near the Social Security District Offices. This allows for immediate internist and psychiatric exams such as when there is concern about losing track of the claimant, i.e., the homeless, street people.

According to Powell, mdsi is looking to expand into North Carolina and Virginia within the near future. This corporate approach to disability evaluation is an interesting concept and seems to be working in the areas serviced by mdsi.