The 20th edition of 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 51 months of experience under the income benefit provisions of HEA 1320 (for 12-month claims) and up to 57 months of experience under the hospital fee schedule.

The study compares the performance of the Indiana workers’ compensation system with 17 other study states, focusing on income benefits, overall medical payments, costs, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, litigiousness, benefit delivery expenses, timeliness of payments, and other metrics. It also examines how these system performance metrics have changed from 2013 to 2018. Claims with experience through March 2019 for injuries up to and including 2018 were analyzed. In some cases, a longer time frame was used to supply historical context for key metrics.

The study helps system stakeholders identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in a wide variety of workers’ compensation system performance measures. It also provides an excellent baseline for tracking the effectiveness of policy changes and monitoring important trends, such as the impact of COVID-19.

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Indiana, 20th Edition. Carol A. Telles. April 2020. WC-20-05.

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