This WCRI study is designed to help public policymakers and system stakeholders understand how prices paid for medical professional services for injured workers in their states compare with other states and know if prices in their state are rising rapidly or relatively slowly.  They can also learn if the reason for price growth in their state is part of a national phenomenon or whether the causes are unique to their state and hence, subject to local management or reform.

Unlike the consumer price index for medical care (CPI-M), which measures general prices paid for medical goods and services, the MPI-WC focuses only on the prices paid for the medical care that injured workers receive under their state’s workers’ compensation system.

This report includes 25 large states that represent nearly 80 percent of the workers’ compensation benefits paid in the United States and covers 11 years from 2002 to 2012 for nonhospital, nonfacility services billed by physicians, physical therapists, and chiropractors.  The medical services fall into eight major groups: evaluation and management, physical medicine, surgery, major radiology, minor radiology, neurological and neuromuscular testing, pain management injections, and emergency care. 

WCRI Medical Price Index for Workers’ Compensation, Fifth Edition (MPI-WC). Rui Yang and Olesya Fomenko. June 2013. WC-13-19.

Copyright: WCRI