This 21st edition CompScope™ Benchmarks study for Massachusetts helps policymakers and other system stakeholders identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in indemnity benefits, medical payments, and benefit delivery expenses. The study compares the performance of state workers’ compensation systems in Massachusetts and 17 other states, focusing on income benefits, costs, overall medical payments, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, benefit delivery expenses, timeliness of payment, and other metrics. The study also examines how these system performance metrics have changed, mainly from 2014 to 2019, for claims at various claim maturities. We analyzed claims with experience through 2020 for injuries up to and including 2019, and, in some cases, we used a longer time frame to supply historical context. We also included information from other Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) benchmarking studies to provide a more complete picture of the system in Massachusetts.

Note that the results we report include experience on claims through March 2020, at the very beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The study, therefore, provides a pre-COVID-19 baseline for evaluating the impact of the virus on workers’ compensation claims. 

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Massachusetts, 21st Edition. Roman Dolinschi. April 2021. WC-21-08.