This 21st edition of CompScope™ Benchmarks for Pennsylvania helps policymakers and other system stakeholders identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in a wide variety of performance measures of state workers’ compensation systems. This report provides meaningful comparisons between Pennsylvania and 17 other study states on key measures including indemnity benefits, duration of temporary disability, lump-sum settlements, medical payments, and benefit delivery expenses. It also examines how these metrics have changed from 2014 to 2019. In some cases, we used a longer time frame to supply historical context for key metrics. We analyzed claims with experience through 2020 for injuries up to and including 2019. We also added information from other Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) studies to provide a more complete picture of the system in Pennsylvania.

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 Pennsylvania, 21st Edition. William Monnin-Browder. April 2021. WC-21-13.