The Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) will hold an hour-long webinar on the impact of vertical integration on prices, medical utilization, and outcomes, based on published WCRI reports. The date of the webinar is Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 2pm ET.

Read the full article

In this 30-minute recorded webinar held on Jan. 11, WCRI Senior Research Analyst and author Dr. Rebecca Yang shared findings from Time to First Medical Service—A WCRI FlashReport. Time to first service provides insights for the understanding of access to medical care by workers with injuries.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, WCRI Senior Analyst Carol Telles shared findings from CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks, 24th Edition and took audience questions. The CompScope™ series is a valuable tool for monitoring how 17 state workers’ compensation systems are performing over time and how they compare to one another across a range of important metrics. The webinar will highlight several general trends that likely relate to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in economic conditions across states.

Read the full article

In this free recorded webinar, author Dr. Bogdan Savych shared findings from WCRI's study Long COVID in the Workers' Compensation System in 2020 and 2021.

Read the full article

In this 30-min. recorded webinar, authors Olesya Fomenko and Rebecca Yang discussed findings and answered questions from Insights into Medical Inflation in Workers’ Compensation—A WCRI FlashReport.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, author Dongchun Wang presented findings from WCRI’s Factors Associated with Extended Use of Physical Medicine Services for Workers with Low Back Pain study and took questions from the audience.

Read the full article

In this 30-minute recorded webinar, Dr. Olesya Fomenko presents findings from WCRI's study, Designing Workers’ Compensation Medical Fee Schedules, 2022. The study highlights the important design choices faced in adopting, reforming, and updating a workers’ compensation medical fee schedule.

Read the full article

In this free 30-minute recorded webinar, Dr. Vennela Thumula discussed findings from the WCRI study, A Primer on Behavioral Health Care in Workers’ Compensation. Workers’ compensation stakeholders recognize that unaddressed behavioral health issues might delay a worker’s recovery and return to work and increase medical costs. This study helps to identify behavioral health issues in workers’ compensation and create a common language and understanding.

Read the full article

In this 30-minute recorded webinar, Evelina Radeva discussed findings from the WCRI study Trends in the Delaware Workers’ Compensation System, 2015–2020. In 2014, Delaware passed HB 373, which made changes to the workers’ compensation medical reimbursement system. This report examines the performance of the Delaware workers’ compensation system after the 2014 statutory changes. The goals of the reforms were primarily to reduce medical costs, create a workers’ compensation system that is more efficient, and make Delaware an attractive place for businesses.

Read the full article

In this 45-minute recorded webinar held on Sept. 29, Dr. Vennela Thumula and Dongchun Wang discussed findings from the WCRIFlashReport—Interstate Variation and Trends in Workers’ Compensation Drug Payments: 2018Q1 to 2021Q1.

Read the full article

This 60-minute recorded webinar discussed findings from a recently published WCRI study, Chiropractic Care for Workers with Low Back Pain. Attendees learned the study’s key findings about the prevalence and outcomes of chiropractic care, as well as what experts have to say about the chiropractic profession and what the research findings mean from a policy perspective.

Read the full article

In this free 45-minute recorded webinar, WCRI Executive Vice President Ramona Tanabe talks with Dr. Francesca L. Beaudoin about Brown University School of Public Health's Long COVID Initiative.

Read the full article

In this 45-minute recorded webinar, author Vennela Thumula discussed findings from two WCRI studies, Topical Analgesic Use in Workers’ Compensation and Off-Label Use of Gabapentinoids for Work-Related Injuries, and took audience questions.

Read the full article

In this free 45-minute webinar, author Bogdan Savych discussed findings from a recent WCRI study, Effects of Opioid-Related Policies on Opioid Utilization, Nature of Medical Care, and Duration of Disability. The study examined the effects of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and other recent regulations on workers with work-related injuries.

Read the full article

In this free, recorded 45-minute webinar, Dr. Vennela Thumula and Dongchun Wang discussed key findings and took audience questions about the WCRI FlashReport — Interstate Variation and Trends in Workers’ Compensation Drug Payments: 2017Q1 to 2020Q1. This study breaks prescription drugs into groups (dermatological agents, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), opioids, compounds, etc.) so you can see where workers’ compensation prescribing dollars are being spent and whether spending for those groups of drugs is going up or down.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, authors Dr. Rebecca Yang and Dr. Randy Lea discuss key findings and take audience questions about WCRI's study Reoperation & Readmission Rates for Workers’ Compensation Patients Undergoing Lumbar Surgery.

Read the full article

In this 45-minute webinar, Dr. Vennela Thumula and Dr. Bogdan Savych discuss the study they authored, Early Predictors of Longer-Term Opioid Dispensing, and take audience questions.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, Ms. Dongchun Wang, Dr. Randy Lea, and Dr. Kathryn Mueller discuss the findings from their study, The Timing of Physical Therapy for Low Back Pain: Does It Matter in Workers’ Compensation?

Read the full article

In this free, one-hour recorded webinar, William Monnin-Browder and Carol Telles discussed key findings from the WCRI study they authored, Monitoring Trends in the New York Workers’ Compensation System, 2020 Edition.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, WCRI President and CEO John Ruser interviewed Dr. Randy Lea and Dr. Mark Herbert about the delivery of medical care and return to work in the COVID-19 era. Dr. Lea is a senior research fellow at WCRI, an orthopedic surgeon, and a hospital chief medical officer in Columbus, OH. Dr. Herbert is a colleague of Dr. Lea and an infectious disease specialist.

Read the full article

In this free 30-minute recorded webinar, WCRI CEO John Ruser and Judge David Langham, deputy chief judge of compensation claims for the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims at the Division of Administrative Hearings, discussed this important topic and took audience questions.

Read the full article

In this free 30-minute recorded webinar, William Monnin-Browder, a policy analyst and author of WCRI's CompScope™ benchmarks studies, discussed key cost drivers, trends, and the performance of the Pennsylvania workers’ compensation system as compared with 17 other states.

Read the full article

The various design choices of fee schedule regulations and their impact on variation in medical prices and payments across state workers’ compensation systems were discussed during this one-hour webinar.

Read the full article

As policymakers and other stakeholders look for ways to improve outcomes for workers injured on the job, one health care delivery model that has received a lot of attention lately is Centers of Excellence (CsOE). In this free one-hour recorded…

Read the full article

In this hour-long webinar, Dr. Vennela Thumula discussed the findings from a recently released WCRI study that found that fewer injured workers in 27 states received opioids as compared with previous years.

Read the full article

In this hour-long webinar, Dr. Bogdan Savych discussed findings from the WCRI study Workers’ Compensation Medical Prices and Outcomes of Injured Workers and took questions from the audience. The study is the first to combine surveys of injured workers with claims data to provide a comprehensive look at the relationship between workers’ compensation prices for medical services and the outcomes that workers experience after a work-related injury.

Read the full article

In this free one-hour webinar, WCRI provided an overview of its latest research on opioid dispensing to injured workers, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) highlighted the comprehensive steps it is taking to assist workers and employers facing the opioid misuse and overdose crisis, and to protect first responders on the frontlines of the epidemic.

Read the full article

In this free, one-hour recorded webinar, Dr. Randall Lea, an orthopedic surgeon and senior research fellow at WCRI, discusses the fundamentals of value-based care (VBC) and its potential use in workers’ compensation. “Some believe VBC will…

Read the full article

In the last decade or so, many medical services for injured workers have shifted from hospitals to nonhospital providers, including ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). These changes are an important factor underlying the trends in medical payments per claim.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, Vennela Thumula and Dongchun Wang discuss WCRI research on the impact of Pennsylvania’s physician dispensing reform.

Read the full article

In this 45-minute recorded webinar, Dr. Bogdan Savych discussed the findings from a recently published WCRI study, The Impact of Opioid Prescriptions on Duration of Temporary Disability.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, Carol Telles discusses the impact of changes to hospital reimbursement in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and North Carolina. Ms. Telles shared findings from WCRI’s CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks, 17th Edition, which examined the costs, prices, and utilization of workers’ compensation medical care in 18 states through March 2016 for injuries occurring mainly in 2010–2015.

Read the full article

In this one-hour recorded webinar, authors Rebecca Yang and Olesya Fomenko discussed the various design choices of fee schedule regulations and their impact on variation in medical payments across state workers’ compensation systems.

Read the full article

In this free 45-minute recorded webinar, Dr. Bogdan Savych discussed the Institute's recently published worker outcomes studies, Comparing Outcomes for Injured Workers, 2016 Interviews. The outcomes examined included recovery of physical health and functioning, return to work, earnings recovery, access to medical care, and satisfaction with medical care.

Read the full article

This webinar discusses WCRI's latest research on interstate variations and trends in the prescribing of opioids for workplace injuries. It was recorded on Sept. 28, 2017. Authors Dongchun Wang and Vennela Thumula discussed findings from the following studies and took audience questions.

Read the full article

Should the choice of provider in workers' compensation cases be left to workers or employers? We discuss our study, The Effects of Provider Choice Policies on Workers’ Compensation Costs, in this recorded webinar. The webinar was hosted by Dr. Bogdan Savych, the author of the study and a public policy analyst at WCRI.

Read the full article