MEDCO EXECUTIVE CHAIR UPDATE – NOVEMBER 2020
PERSONAL INJURY REFORMS
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the implementation date for the reforms remains April 2021.
Subject to any unexpected issues arising from the new court rules or pre-action protocols our systems have been tested and ready for full integration with the new Official Injury Claims portal.
I am advised that the Ministry of Justice continue to work on requirements for medical report providers who intend to offer services to unrepresented claimants via the MedCo system, and details will be published in due course.
MEDCO GOVERNANCE AND SUPPLIER REVIEW
I am pleased to announce that the review has been completed.
At a recent meeting the MedCo board considered the recommendations contained in the report and agreed an initial action plan to take matters forward. I am not able to disclose the full details of that plan at this time but the report will be published and further announcements made in due course.
2020 ACCOUNTS AND 2021 DRAFT BUDGET
The audited accounts for year end 31st December 2020 have been filed with Companies House and a copy uploaded to the MedCo website:
https://www.medco.org.uk/media/1254/medco-accounts-and-letter-of-representation-2019.pdf
Whilst MedCo is a not for profit company it has responsibilities to ensure that it can continue to provide a quality service to Users and implement government policy for the foreseeable future. The Board is currently considering the draft budget for 2021 in conjunction with future charging policy. The importance of this work was highlighted in the Governance Review.
As a priority the Board is reviewing MedCo’s expenditure forecast for 2021. This is a complex task because of, but not limited to, the uncertainty of the impact of next year’s personal injury reforms and the Covid pandemic as well as the necessity to maintain MedCo’s current high level and quality of services provided by our third party suppliers.
CHARGING POLICY – 2021
For some time the MedCo Board has been considering the current charging methodology and has decided to implement a model that is fairer and spreads the cost of funding MedCo across all users of the service to reflect the level of usage by, and services provided to, all who use the system. This work was temporarily suspended due to the Covid pandemic but has now become a priority.
The board has formed a charging policy oversight group consisting of a member from each of the representative groups (i.e. medical, claimant, insurer). Earlier this year we sought the views of users and the outcomes from that will be as considered as part our deliberations.
Users will be notified of changes to the current charging policy as soon as possible.
Martin Heskins
Executive Chair
