This study can help policymakers and other system stakeholders interested in the Illinois workers’ compensation system identify current cost drivers and emerging trends for a wide variety of workers’ compensation cost measures, including the following:

  • income benefits,
  • overall medical
  • payments,
  • costs,
  • use of benefits,
  • duration of disability,
  • litigiousness,
  • benefit delivery expenses,
  • timeliness of payment,
  • permanent partial disability,
  • temporary total disability and
  • other metrics.

It compares these metrics in Illinois with similar measures from 17 other states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

This study analyzes workers’ compensation claims with injury dates between 2010 and 2015 (evaluated as of March 31, 2016), for claims at various maturities. In some cases, a longer time frame was used to supply a historical context for key metrics and to provide a broader context for evaluating effects of changes related to the 2011 reforms in Illinois. 

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Illinois, 17th Edition. Evelina Radeva. April 2017. WC-17-04.