The factors behind trends in medical payments per claim in 18 state workers’ compensation systems and the impact of legislative and regulatory changes on those costs are examined in this 22nd edition of CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks.

The studies examine trends in payments, prices, and utilization of medical care for workers with injuries. They provide analyses of recent costs and trends for policymakers and other system stakeholders, reporting how medical payments per claim and cost components vary over time and from state to state. The studies cover the period from 2014 through 2019, with claims experience through March 2020.

The 18 states in the study ― Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin ― represent about 60 percent of the nation’s workers’ compensation benefit payments. Individual reports are available for every state except Arkansas, Iowa, and Tennessee.

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™ Medical Benchmarks, 22nd Edition. Roman Dolinschi, William Monnin-Browder, Evelina Radeva, Karen Rothkin, Bogdan Savych, Carol A. Telles, and Rui Yang. October 2021. WC-21-25 to WC-21-39.

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