Dr. Finkel’s testimony provided some insight into the details of the assessment process in this matter. Dr. Finkel, of course, was part of the multidisciplinary assessment arranged by Health Impact. Dr. Finkel’s prime occupation is doing psychiatric assessments, principally for a variety of insurers mostly in the automotive sector.
He is not, however, usually directly retained by an insurer but rather by an assessment company such as Health Impact whose raison d’être is the provision of assessments services. Dr. Finkel also confirmed that Mr. Cowans’ assessment was a brief, one-time interview, one of up to 45 to 50 he might do in a month. [See note 19 below]
Note 19: Although it was possible to infer even higher numbers of examinations from Dr. Finkel’s cross-examination, for the purpose of this analysis I accept that the number was intended to be on a monthly basis, a presumption that would be consistent with Dr. Finkel’s projected income from assessments being in the range of some $600,000 per year.
He would receive the paperwork, including the documents indicated on his report, proceed to the assessment location, interview the insured, and then write a report. Given the volume of examinations, it could not be supposed that there was significant time for detailed reflection on each assessment.
Although Dr. Finkel was apparently provided with a copy of the Insurer’s FAE assessment for comment, his evidence was that, following the initial assessment, there was no contact from Motors nor any other further relevant documents sent to him for consideration. In fact, Dr. Finkel stated that there was never any direct communication between him as an assessor and Motors.
More importantly, with the exception of the provision of the FAE report, there is no evidence of a co-ordinated attempt to reach a consensus between assessors or to deal with disability other than in the narrow view of each discipline. Given that Mr. Cowans claimed that he was disabled due to a mixture of psychological problems, pain issues, and physical constraints, such an omission, is highly problematic.
Although much was made of Dr. Finkel’s preconceptions as to accident victims, and his obvious dependence on the insurer’s goodwill for his lucrative assessment business, I do not believe that this is a central problem in Mr. Cowans’ case. Rather, the problem would appear to be more systemic.
Assuming for example that the 40–50 assessments figure related to a month, that would mean that Dr. Finkel on some weeks may have performed at least 10 assessments per work week. The time permitted to review, assess and report on any individual would have been at most 4 hours from start to finish, including the reading of voluminous documentation. [See note 20)
Note 20: Assuming a 40-hour work week. Even doubling this figure to 80 hours per week would still leave little room for a considered, professional assessment, given that Dr. Finkel also still saw some OHIP patients in the same work week.
Whether Dr. Finkel was biased or prejudiced or not, I find that it tests credulity to believe that an assessment mill [See note 21 below] such as described by Dr. Finkel could ever generate meaningful results.
Read: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/18/put-auto-insurers-under-microscope