This report continues to monitor how components of medical costs per claim in Virginia’s workers’ compensation system changed after the medical fee schedule was implemented on January 1, 2018. 

Among the main components of medical costs, we highlight prices paid for medical services and utilization of those services across multiple types of medical providers. The study highlights the trends in these system performance measures primarily from 2014 to 2019 (evaluated in March 2020). Data in this analysis provide information for 21 months of injuries and 27 months of experience under the medical fee schedule. In some cases, we used a longer time frame to supply historical context for observed measures. We also compare various components of workers’ compensation medical payments per claim in Virginia with similar measures from 17 other states. 

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 Virginia, 22nd Edition. Bogdan Savych. October 2021. WC-21-38.