June 2, 2014
By Steven Wishnia
New York, NY – LaborPress will present a special award to Joseph B. Stamm of MedReview at its second annual Labor Leadership Awards ceremony June 5.
MedReview, founded in 1984, evaluates the cost and quality of health services paid for by its clients, who include Local 1199 SEIU’s National Benefit Fund, the New York City Office of Labor Relations, and the New York City Municipal Labor Committee. It and its nonprofit parent, the New York County Health Services Review Organization (NYCHSCRO), have saved labor unions and other organizations more than $1 billion since 1974.
Stamm, who has headed MedReview since 1985, formerly worked for the city Department of Health as director of investigation and enforcement, director of program planning and development, and assistant director of health evaluation.
“I’m honored that LaborPress is recognizing our accomplishments for the past 40 years,” he says.
“We’re grateful for the support of unions,” he adds. Local 1199 is the “flagship,” he says, but MedReview also oversees health-care services for city workers such as teachers, firefighters, and police. Over the past 20 years, NYCHSRO and MedReview estimate that they have conducted “over 2 million peer reviews to evaluate clinical decisions and services rendered by medical practitioners.”
For example, MedReview investigates whether a hospital, clinic, or doctor assigned its services to a patient to the correct “DRG,” diagnosis-related group, the nearly 500 categories used to determine payment. It checks whether services were actually rendered, were ordered by the physician, didn’t duplicate each other, and weren’t erroneously billed, and reviews the level and quality of care.
“It is our job to make certain that the services rendered are medically necessary,” Stamm told LaborPress in May.
MedReview also conducts independent reviews to assess experimental or investigational treatments and evaluate whether treatments or hospitalizations were appropriate. And it investigates the quality of and conditions in adult-care facilities, nursing homes, and home health-care services.
