WCRI Medical Price Index for Workers’ Compensation, Eighth Edition (MPI-WC)

By Rebecca (Rui) Yang, Olesya Fomenko

November 1, 2016 Related Topics: Medical Costs, Medical Price Index

In recent policy debates, increasing costs of medical care for treating injured workers have been a focus of public policymakers and system stakeholders in many states. To help them conduct meaningful comparisons of prices paid across states, and to monitor the price trends in relation to policy choices and changes in fee schedules, this annual study creates an index for the actual prices paid for professional services based on a market basket of commonly used services for treating injured workers. 

The MPI-WC tracks medical prices paid in 31 states from calendar year 2008 through 2015 for professional services billed by physicians, physical therapists, and chiropractors. The medical services fall into eight groups: evaluation and management, physical medicine, surgery, major radiology, minor radiology, neurological testing, pain management injections, and emergency care.

The 31 states included in the MPI-WC are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

WCRI Medical Price Index for Workers' Compensation, Eighth Edition. Rui Yang and Olesya Fomenko. November 2016. WC-16-74.

 

Copyright: WCRI

pdf download

pdf, 399KB

Reports are free for members.

If you are a member, please login here

.

*Temporary membership will allow you to download the study represented here

Research Questions:

1. How do prices paid for medical professional services for injured workers in my state compare with other states?

2. How are prices in my state changing?

3.Is the price trend in my state part of a national phenomenon or are the causes unique to my state and, hence, subject to local issues?

Contact WCRI

To obtain your member login or to answer any questions or concern you may have, please contact us here.