Method and system for medical treatment review

1. A computer-implemented method of medical treatment review, comprising:

receiving patient data into a patient database, wherein the patient data at least includes a diagnosis of the patient;

providing a plurality of treatment protocols for the patient for selection by a treating provider, wherein the treatment protocols are pre-approved for the patient diagnosis, and wherein each of the plurality of treatment protocols are associated with a cost and a effectiveness;

receiving a selection of one of the plurality of treatment protocols by the treating provider to yield a selected treatment protocol;

generating an authorization of the selected treatment protocol based on predefined criteria;

and subsequent to the authorization and via a processor, determining whether at least one normalization fee for the selected treatment protocol should be applied based at least on a comparison of the cost and the effectiveness for the selected treatment protocol with respect to other ones of the plurality of treatment protocols; and

applying the at least one normalization fee to increase an amount of profit the treatment provider would realize for the selected treatment protocol to exceed a customary amount of profit for the selected treatment protocol, wherein an amount for the at least one normalization fee is determined based at least on a difference in the cost and the effectiveness for the selected treatment protocol with respect to other ones of the plurality of treatment protocols.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating an authorization of the selected treatment protocol comprises:

generating the authorization without any peer review if the selected protocol meets the predefined criteria, and

generating the authorization following peer review if the selected protocol does not meet the predefined criteria.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the peer review comprises presenting, at a peer review workstation, at least the patient data and the selected treatment protocol to a treatment reviewer, and receiving one of an authorization or an objection to the selected treatment protocol from the peer review workstation.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the peer review further comprises delivering at least the patient data and the selected treatment protocol to an authorized agent, other than the treating provider and the treatment reviewer, responsive to the receiving of the objection.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising the steps of:

informing the treating provider of a status of the authorization; and

informing a primary care agent of the selected treatment protocol and any details of a peer review if such a review was conducted.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one normalization fee increases the amount of profit that the treating provider would realize for the selected treatment protocol to at least approach an amount of profit as for other ones of the treatment protocols pre-approved for the patient diagnosis for which the effectiveness is similar and the cost is higher as compared to the selected treatment protocol.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one normalization fee is a flat rate fee to be paid to the treating provider per treatment session for the patient.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising adjusting the number of treatment protocols available for selection by the treating provider if an initial selected treatment protocol was unsuccessful in treating the patient.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein adjusting the number of treatment protocols available for selection by the treating provider comprises eliminating from selection at least the selected treatment protocol that was unsuccessful in treating the patient.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one other normalization fee is applied for the selected treatment protocol when the authorization is generated without any peer review.

11. A system for medical treatment review, comprising:

a processor;

a patient database that receives patient data from a treating provider, wherein the patient data includes at least a diagnosis of a disease of a patient;

a treatment protocol database that is populated with one or more treatment protocols that provide guidelines for treating patients with various diseases; and

a computer readable medium having storing instructions for causing the processor to:

receive the patient data from the patient database, a treatment protocol that is selected by the treating provider for the patient, and treatment protocol data from the treatment protocol database that is associated with the disease of the patient,

analyze the patient data and the selected treatment protocol based at least on the treatment protocol data,

based on the analysis, automatically generate an approval for the selected treatment protocol if predefined criteria are met, else forward the selected treatment protocol and the patient data for a peer review process to generate the approval,

responsive to the approval, determining whether at least one normalization fee for the selected treatment protocol should be applied based at least on a comparison of the cost and the effectiveness for the selected treatment protocol with respect to other treatment protocols pre-approved for the patient diagnosis, and

applying the at least one normalization fee to increase an amount of profit the treatment provider would realize for the selected treatment protocol to exceed a customary amount of profit for the selected treatment protocol, wherein an amount for the at least one normalization fee is determined based at least on a difference in the cost and the effectiveness for the selected treatment protocol with respect to other ones of the plurality of treatment protocols.

12. The system according to claim 11 , further comprising a peer review workstation that is configured to receive the selected treatment protocol and the patient data, thereby enabling a treatment reviewer to determine whether the selected treatment protocol should be authorized.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises instructions for causing the processor to compute the at least one normalization fee to increase the profit realized by the treating provider for the selected treatment protocol to at least approach an amount of profit as for other ones of the treatment protocols pre-approved for the patient diagnosis for which the effectiveness is similar and the cost is higher as compared to the selected treatment protocol.

14. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the the computer-readable medium further comprises instructions for causing the processor to selectively adjust the option of selecting certain treatment protocols from the treatment protocol database based on an initial unsuccessful treatment of the patient.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises instructions for causing the processor to apply at least one other normalization fee for the selected treatment protocol when the authorization is generated without any peer review.