Understanding the flow of payments—to whom and for what—is essential for targeting cost drivers, evaluating innovations in medical management, and challenging conventional wisdom. The benchmarks in this reference book help identify where changes in treatment patterns may be occurring, detect areas where medical
payments per claim or utilization may be atypical compared with other study states
for a set of similar claims, or discover areas where, because of underutilization of medical services, there may be concerns about restrictions on access to care. The reference book addresses key questions:

• How do medical prices, payments and utilization per claim differ across states for similar injuries and workers?

• How have medical prices, payments and utilization per claim changed over time within each state, and what are the major drivers of those changes?

This report examines fourteen states (Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin), providing detailed measures of medical prices, payments and utilization by provider type and service group. There are individual state reports for all states except Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas.

The Anatomy of Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs and Utilization in Louisiana, 7th Edition. Stacey M. Eccleston, Petia Petrova, and Xiaoping Zhao. January 2009. WC-08-19.