The various design choices of fee schedule regulations and their impact on variation in medical payments across state workers’ compensation systems were discussed during an hour-long webinar by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.
The various design choices of fee schedule regulations and their impact on variation in medical payments across state workers’ compensation systems were discussed during an hour-long webinar by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.
Dr. Rebecca Yang, a senior public policy analyst at WCRI, and Dr. Olesya Fomenko, an economist at WCRI, hosted the webinar. They discussed the Institute’s latest research on the topic and took questions from the audience. The following WCRI studies, which examine both medical professional services and hospital services, were covered in the webinar:
- Designing Workers' Compensation Medical Fee Schedules, 2016: The study highlighted some of the most important design choices that public officials face in adopting, reforming, and updating a workers’ compensation fee schedule for physicians, and discussed how the 43 states with fee schedules and the District of Columbia resolved these choices.
- WCRI Medical Price Index for Workers' Compensation, Ninth Edition (MPI-WC): The study examined the interstate variations in prices paid for medical professional services for treating injured workers in 31 states and monitored the trends in each state.
- Hospital Outpatient Payment Index: Interstate Variations and Policy Analysis, 6th Edition: The study compared the hospital outpatient payments for common outpatient surgeries under workers’ compensation across 35 states and examined the trends within each state.
The webinar addressed the following questions:
- What are the different types of fee schedules that states use to regulate reimbursement for medical professional and hospital services?
- How do medical prices paid for professional and hospital outpatient services in your state compare with others?
- How are medical prices shaped by fee schedule policy choices?
- What is the impact of recent fee schedule reforms on medical prices paid?
Recorded webinars are $25 for Non-Members and FREE for WCRI Members, members of the press, legislators as well as their staff, and state public officials who make policy decisions regarding workers’ compensation. Although WCRI memebers can login to watch the webinar, press and policymakers must contact WCRI for a link to this recording.
