I'm a practicing emergency medicine physician associate. For $750 flat, I review one ED or urgent care encounter and send you a written memo within 72 hours on how the care holds up and what's missing from the record.
One patient, one ED or urgent care encounter, up to 200 pages. Half the fee credits toward a full review if engaged within 60 days of the memo being delivered.
Seventeen years in emergency departments and urgent care, currently lead PA at a Connecticut community emergency department. I read charts the way they were written, under the same time pressure.
In many states the standard of care for a physician associate has to come from someone who actually knows PA practice. Scope, supervision, and escalation questions do not map cleanly onto a physician expert.
The question at intake is simple. Is there a standard-of-care problem here worth pursuing, or is this a bad outcome with defensible care? Answering it should not require retaining a full expert, waiting three weeks, and spending four figures before you know whether the file is worth anything.
The merit screen answers that question in a page or two, in 72 hours, for a fixed fee you know before you start.
That's what the flat fee is for. I get paid the same whether the chart supports a case or not, so nothing about the answer changes what I earn. The sample memo on this site shows what that looks like. It works through five documentation and standard-of-care problems, then spends a full section on why the case is weaker than those findings make it look, and it ends by recommending more records rather than a full review.
Send the party names and the facility. I run the conflict check the same day at no charge, before any case facts change hands.