Standard of Care Cost and Fee Structure
The cost of a standard of care review depends on the physician's work, from record review and analysis to the report and any testimony. The record review dominates: a board-certified physician reads the whole record for the episode of care, with the imaging and clinical documentation, before forming an opinion, so record volume and the number of providers and questions under review set most of the work. Counsel controls the scope, standard of care alone or causation with it, and the completeness of the record sent.
Scope and estimate
Standard of care reviews are scoped to the clinical questions and the volume of records involved. KWVRS provides a written fee schedule and a cost estimate before work begins.
What drives cost
- Volume and complexity of the medical record
- Number of clinical questions and providers under review
- Whether the assignment includes causation in addition to standard of care
- Need for literature review to document accepted clinical standards
- Number of report revisions and rebuttal opinions requested
- Deposition and trial testimony, including preparation and travel time
Billing structure
Counsel receives a written fee schedule and an estimate for the requested scope before any work begins, and the engagement agreement sets the fee and its payment terms.
Questions about standard of care cost and fee structure
What drives the cost of a standard of care review?
The record, first: every page of the episode of care, the imaging and the clinical documentation is read by the reviewing physician, so volume and complexity set the base. The number of clinical questions and of providers whose care is under review comes next, then whether causation is included alongside standard of care, and whether a literature review is needed to document the accepted clinical standard for the questions asked.
What does the fee for a standard of care review cover?
The physician's record review, analysis and report, at the fee the engagement agreement sets with its payment terms; there is no interview or testing phase, because the opinion is a reading of the record. Each scope added, causation or a literature review, is priced in writing before that work begins, on the same terms for counsel presenting a claim and counsel defending one.
Does KWVRS provide a cost estimate before a standard of care review begins?
Yes, once intake has confirmed the specialty fit, so the estimate is for a review the physician will actually conduct. Send the complete record for the episode of care with imaging, the clinical questions and the providers under review, any opposing medical opinion already served, and the disclosure deadline; state the specialty of the care under review when you inquire.
Does deposition or trial testimony add to the cost of a standard of care review?
Yes, on the fee schedule and apart from the report, as the testimony cost page describes. The preparation is specific to a medical opinion: the physician re-reads the episode of care and the literature relied on, since cross-examination tests the standard applied and the timing of each finding against the record. A rebuttal opinion written as opposing medical reports are produced is priced separately.
Is a review of an opposing standard of care opinion priced separately?
Yes. A rebuttal opinion on a medical report the other side has served is scoped when that report is produced, because its size follows the report: the record it relied on, the standard it applied and the literature it cites are each checked against the file. It can be the whole engagement or an addition to a review already under way, and it is priced like any other scope.
Does the board-certified physician change the cost of a standard of care review?
The review is the physician's work throughout, and the estimate counsel receives before work begins is built on that work. The reviewer is the Chief Medical Director, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, and the specialty of the care under review is matched at intake, before scope and the fee are set, so a matter outside that specialty is identified before any work begins.
Related reading
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