The study examines medical payments, prices, and utilization for various types of services by nonhospital and hospital providers in Florida, and compares them with 17 other states. It also examines how these metrics of medical costs and care have changed, mainly from 2014 to 2019, for claims at an average of 12 months of experience.

Claims with experience through 2020 for injuries up to and including 2019 were analyzed. In some cases, a longer time frame was used to supply historical context for key metrics. Information from other WCRI studies was also included to provide a more complete picture of the system in Florida.

Florida implemented medical fee schedule updates for hospital, ambulatory surgery center, and nonhospital professional services from 2015 to 2017. Results in this study reflect experience in Florida after these policy changes.

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 for Florida, 22nd Edition. Rebecca Yang. October 2021. WC-21-26.

Copyright: WCRI