Work Comp Networks, Explained for Practice Owners: MedRisk, One Call, SPNet, Bardavon, and Streamline

To get more work comp referrals, a PT practice has to be credentialed with the managed care networks that route the cases — MedRisk, One Call, SPNet, Bardavon, Streamline, and their peers — and then be easy for those networks to send cases to. Injured workers rarely choose their PT clinic; adjusters, nurse case managers, and network scheduling teams route the referral, so the practices that grow work comp are the ones built for that routing system.

Ask most owners where their work comp cases come from and you'll hear "the doctor" or "a case manager we know." Follow the last ten cases backward and a different picture usually appears: a network scheduling call, a network portal, or a payer contract that required the case to stay inside a specific network. That is the system your program either fits — or doesn't.

How network routing actually works

When a work comp claim opens, the payer (insurer, self-insured employer, or TPA) typically steers physical medicine through one or more contracted networks. The network's job is to schedule the injured worker quickly with a credentialed provider near them, manage utilization, and report outcomes back to the payer. TPAs describe the model plainly: partnerships with managed PT networks give them discounted networks, data to identify at-risk claims, and utilization review that keeps treatment tied to the injury. Liberty Mutual's arrangement is a visible example — since 2022, One Call has been its single preferred network for physical medicine claims, handling referral authorization, invoicing, and payment for in-network providers.

Three consequences follow for a practice:

1. If you're not in the network, the case can't come to you — no matter how good your clinicians are or how well the adjuster knows your name.
2. Being in the network is the starting line, not the finish. Networks schedule from a pool of credentialed providers. What moves you within that pool is responsiveness, documentation quality, and the outcomes data the network collects on you.
3. Each network is a separate relationship. Credentialing with one does not enroll you in another, and each has its own contracting, documentation, and scheduling systems.

The networks owners name most

MedRisk — One of the largest managed PT networks in workers' comp. MedRisk recruits providers directly (its Provider Relations team takes nominations) and promotes its network providers locally and nationally to its payer and Fortune 500 employer clients. Its model leans on data: patient advocates match injured workers to providers using performance indicators by injury type, age, and satisfaction, and its Platinum Grade program is built on evidence-based guidelines. Translation for owners: MedRisk can see your outcomes, and it schedules accordingly.

One Call — A broad ancillary-services company whose PT network is the default channel for several large payers. One Call emphasizes speed and access: outreach to the injured worker begins within hours of a referral, and it reports a 92% national scheduling in-network success rate. Its "PT Where You Are" model also routes cases to virtual, in-home (mobile), and on-site options — which means a brick-and-mortar practice competes for network cases against more delivery models than the clinic down the street. Getting in starts with a single step: an interest form on One Call's provider page, where a PT practice checks "Physical Medicine" and gives its legal business name, tax ID, and service area. One Call publishes nothing beyond that — no credentialing requirements, documents, or timeline, and no phone or email route for prospective providers (the provider-relations email on the page is explicitly for already-contracted providers only). Practical read: the form is an expression of interest, not an application — expect a network representative to drive whatever comes next, and don't count One Call's timeline into your plan, because there isn't a published one.

SPNet (SPNet Clinical Solutions) — The clinician-led specialist. SPNet calls itself "the clinical alternative" for providers: it specializes in PT/OT for workers' comp and runs an evidence-based utilization management model, with the network itself managed by rehabilitation specialists. Its provider offer is specific: referrals from local and national clients, no access fees, prompt payment, a utilization management system with continuing-education access, evidence-based practice guidelines, and outcomes reporting that details facility and clinician performance — with participation explicitly based on quality of service delivery, not price. TPAs partner with SPNet for both the discounted network and its utilization review. Translation: SPNet suits practices whose differentiator is clinical quality and outcomes data, and whose documentation can survive a utilization review.

Bardavon — A nationwide PT/OT network founded in 2014 and based in Overland Park, Kansas, built specifically around workplace injuries and return-to-work goals. Bardavon is the most technology-forward of the group: its bNOTES system guides treatment and collects clinical data on every case, delivering consistently formatted notes to payers, adjusters, and case managers. Translation: if you join Bardavon, your documentation becomes structured data they score — which is either a burden or an advantage, depending on how disciplined your notes already are.

Streamline — The direct-contracting challenger. Streamline contracts with therapy clinics (PT, OT, hand therapy, work conditioning, tele-rehab) plus imaging, electrodiagnostic, and FCE/impairment providers — and makes a point of what it is not: no marketplace bidding, no scraped rosters. Referrals are matched by geography, modality, and sub-specialty rather than auctioned. Its published onboarding is the most transparent of the group: submit facility details, a network review of fit and service levels, a standard credentialing packet, direct contract, then go-live in its Streamline360 platform — most applications reach contract in two to three weeks, with credentialing itself often moving in about two. Its stated standards read like a checklist a practice can prepare against: active licensure and accreditation where applicable, meaningful work comp volume and fee-schedule familiarity, report and scheduling turnaround commitments, electronic referral/report workflow, and specialty coverage (CHT, FCE) where relevant. Translation: Streamline tells you the timeline and the bar up front — the trade-off to examine is the payer volume behind a newer, directly contracted network in your markets.

How to get in — and get cases: seven steps

1. Map your referral sources first. Pull your last 12 months of work comp cases and record, for each one, who actually routed it: which network, which case manager, which employer, which physician. Most practices discover their network mix is narrower — or different — than they assumed. You cannot prioritize credentialing until you know this.
2. List the networks your payers use. Work backward from your top work comp payers and TPAs to the networks they steer through. State direction-of-care rules matter here: in some states the payer/employer controls provider choice; in others the injured worker has more say, which changes how much network position matters.
3. Apply to each network separately. Start with each network's provider channel (MedRisk, for example, accepts provider nominations by phone and email; One Call starts with an interest form on its site — select "Physical Medicine"; Streamline starts with a facility form on its site). Expect a contract, a fee schedule, credentialing of the practice and the treating clinicians (licenses, malpractice coverage, disciplinary history), and a decision whose timeline varies by network — Streamline publishes two to three weeks to contract for most applicants, while the larger networks' reviews can run weeks to months. There is no single application that covers all of them.
4. Read the fee schedule like an operator, not a clinician. Network rates are discounted. Before signing, model the cases at those rates against your visit costs — and weigh the volume, the payer mix it unlocks, and the fact that some of these cases would never reach you otherwise. Declining a network is a legitimate decision; declining it unexamined is not.
5. Build the operational layer before the first referral lands. How fast can your front desk schedule a network referral? Who owns network documentation requirements, authorization follow-ups, and status updates to the case manager? Networks remember the practice that answers in an hour and sends clean notes the same day — because their scheduling teams are measured on exactly that.
6. Make your documentation network-grade. Consistent evaluation structure, objective measures, functional goals tied to job demands, and a clear return-to-work line in every note. Whether it's MedRisk's outcomes data, Bardavon's bNOTES, or SPNet's utilization review, your notes are your network reputation in data form.
7. Measure network penetration monthly. Track cases by routing source, visits per case, and time from referral to first visit — by network. When a channel goes quiet, you'll see it in the numbers before you feel it in the schedule, and you'll have something concrete to take to provider relations.

The five mistakes that keep practices invisible

• Waiting to be invited. Networks recruit, but they recruit where payers need coverage. A complete application from a ready practice beats hoping for a nomination.
• Treating credentialing as the finish line. Enrollment puts you in the pool. Responsiveness, clean documentation, and outcomes determine whether the pool sends you anyone.
• One clinician as the whole program. If network relationships, documentation standards, and scheduling response all live in one person's head, you don't have a network strategy — you have a person. People take vacations and resign.
• Ignoring the non-network channels. Networks are the largest routing system, not the only one. Nurse case managers, adjusters, employers, and physicians still route cases directly — the practices that grow work comp run both systems, deliberately.
• Never auditing the mix. Owners often discover — a year late — that a payer moved its PT business to a single preferred network they never joined. Step 1 exists to prevent exactly that surprise.

Where this fits in a program

Network participation is one component of a work comp service line, alongside FCE and work conditioning protocols, employer-facing services like POET and First Aid, and documentation standards. It's the component owners ask about first, because it sits closest to referrals — but a network can only send cases to a program that can run them. If you're not sure which of those components is your actual constraint, that's the question the Work Comp & Industrial Rehab Program Diagnostic answers: it reviews referral sources and payer mix — including network participation — alongside protocols, employer services, and documentation, and returns a prioritized roadmap. Start with the PT Practice Solutions overview if you want the full picture first.

Christopher Torres, PT, DPT, OCS, CEAS, spent 26 years in outpatient orthopedic and work comp care, including running a group of 25+ clinics, before founding Torres Workforce Health Partners to help PT practices build work comp service lines and employers prevent the injuries that feed them.