This report provides a look at changes in the Indiana workers’ compensation system following significant legislation in 2013 and 2014 that focused on several key policy concerns. House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1320 addressed hospital costs, which were a key driver of higher-than-typical medical payments in Indiana, by enacting a hospital fee schedule effective July 1, 2014. The legislation also addressed the lower maximum statutory benefit, one factor in lower indemnity benefits per claim in Indiana, by increasing those benefits in three yearly increments beginning in 2014. The data in this report reflect up to 27 months of experience under the income benefit provisions of HEA 1320 and up to 33 months of experience under the hospital fee schedule.

The study compares the performance of the Indiana workers’ compensation system with 17 other states, focusing on income benefits, overall medical payments, costs, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, litigiousness, benefit delivery expenses, timeliness of payment, and other metrics. It also examines how these system performance metrics have changed from 2011 to 2016. Claims with experience through 2017 for injuries up to and including 2016 were analyzed, and, in some cases, we used a longer time frame to supply historical context.

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Indiana, 18th Edition. Carol A. Telles. April 2018. WC-18-05.

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