Monitoring the Impact of Reforms and Recession in Texas: CompScope™ Benchmarks, 13th Edition

The impact of the recession, legislative and regulatory reforms and the growing costs of medical care on workers’ compensation system performance are among the key developments addressed in the latest edition of these reports.

These reports provide useful information on two central questions:

• How does the performance of a state system compare with that of other states?
• How is workers' compensation system performance changing over time?

Specifically, we present various measures in several areas:

• Time from injury to payor notice of injury and first indemnity payment
• Average total cost per claim, average payment per claim for medical benefits, and average payments per claim for indemnity benefits and components (temporary disability benefits, permanent partial disability benefits, and lump-sum settlements)
• Vocational rehabilitation use and costs
• Benefit delivery expenses per claim and defense attorney involvement
• Duration of temporary disability

The states in the study—California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin — represent nearly 60 percent of the nation’s workers’ compensation benefit payments.

Monitoring the Impact of Reforms and Recession in Texas: CompScope™ Benchmarks, 13th Edition. Carol A. Telles. October 2012. WC-12-35.