The 19th edition of this study for Pennsylvania helps policymakers and other system stakeholders identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in indemnity benefits, medical payments, and benefit delivery expenses. It compares the performance of the Pennsylvania workers’ compensation system with 17 other study states on key measures including income benefits, duration of temporary disability, frequency and payments of permanent partial disability/lump-sum claims, overall medical payments, benefit delivery expenses, litigiousness, timeliness of payment, and other metrics. It also examines how these metrics have changed from 2012 to 2017. Claims with experience through 2018 for injuries up to and including 2017 were analyzed. In some cases, a longer time frame was used to supply historical context.

During the period covered in this study, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in Protz v. WCAB (Derry Area School District) (2017), invalidated Section 306 (a.2) of the workers’ compensation statute, which set forth the impairment rating evaluation (IRE) process for adjusting the status of workers’ compensation benefits between total and partial benefits. Effective October 2018, Pennsylvania restored the IRE process, with certain changes. Data in this report reflect about nine months of experience following the Protz decision. All injury and payment dates in this report precede the effective date of Act 111, which restored the IRE process.

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Pennsylvania, 19th Edition. William Monnin-Browder. April 2019. WC-19-13.

Copyright: WCRI