Application of Ontario's Minor Injury Guideline is "crazy right now": AB lawyer

(Article appearing on The Canadian Underwriter.ca) 

2012-02-09

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The application of Ontario's new Minor Injury Guideline (MIG), which defines the scope of minor injuries sustained in vehicle collisions, is "crazy right now," according to Kadey B.J. Schultz, partner with Hughes Amys LLP.
In some instances, she said, the MIG protocol is being applied to files that include injuries such as fractures, complete tears and very serious psychological complaints.
Schultz spoke at the Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association's (OIAA) 2012 Professional Development & Claims Conference in Toronto on Feb. 8.
If a claimant has a fracture, an insurer cannot, in Schultz's opinion, be placed in the MIG, which is a treatment protocol that includes a $3,500 cap on insurance payments for minor injuries.
Nor can an insurer pay for the treatment of a fracture injury for the full duration of the staged treatment process defined in the MIG, and then re-instate new treatment of the fracture using a subsequent OCF 18 (treatment and assessment plan), she added.
"You're either in the MIG, or you are out of the MIG," she said.
Insurers and the province's insurance regulator, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), are trying to capture the minor injuries and treat them within the MIG protocol whenever possible, she said. "The MIG is something that needs to be applied aggressively, assertively, but it has to be applied correctly."

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