This 22nd 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 2015 to 2020, for claims at various claim maturities. 

We analyze claims with experience through 2021 for injuries up to and including 2020, and, in some cases, we use a longer time frame to supply historical context. We also include information from other WCRI benchmarking studies to provide a more complete picture of the system in Massachusetts.

Note that the results we report reflect experience on claims through March 2021, including non-COVID-19 claims only from the early pandemic period (March–September 2020). The study, therefore, provides a look at how the pandemic impacted non-COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims in the early months of the pandemic.  

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Massachusetts, 22nd Edition. Roman Dolinschi. April 2022. WC-22-06.