• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • WCW HOME
  • Submit a Wire!
  • Advertising
  • Media Partners
  • About
  • Contact Us

WorkCompWire

Your Trusted Source for Workers Compensation News

Enlyte
  • Workers Compensation News
    • Workers Compensation Industry News
    • Association, Rating & Research News
    • Claims, Legal, & Compliance News
    • Legislative & Regulatory News
    • Risk Management News
    • Work Force & Human Resource News
  • Featured Articles
  • Leaders Speak
  • Editor’s Forum
  • People On The Move

Wisconsin Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs Per Claim Increased as Prices and Utilization of Services Grew, Says WCRI Study

February 1, 2011 - WorkCompWire

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The increased cost and more frequent use of medical care provided to injured workers in Wisconsin drove up the average medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in recent years, according to a new study by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).

The study, CompScope™ Benchmarks for Wisconsin, 11th Edition, found that the 12 percent growth in medical costs per claim in Wisconsin for claims arising in the October 2007 through September 2008 period and evaluated as of March 2009 was faster than in the other study states, where the median growth was 9 percent.

As a result of this growth, medical payments per claim in Wisconsin became higher than the median of the 16 study states for 2006/2009 claims. As recently as 2003/2006, medical payments per claim in Wisconsin were fairly typical of the states in the study.

Previous WCRI research reported that the prices paid for services delivered by nonhospital providers, such as physicians, physical/occupational therapists and chiropractors, grew 28 percent from 2002 to 2007, and payments per hospital outpatient services grew 43 percent. The growth in medical payments per claim was also driven by an increase in the utilization of medical services by nonhospital providers. From 2002 to 2007, utilization grew 26 percent, faster than the growth in the median state of 11 percent.

In contrast to the higher and rapidly rising medical payments per claim, historically, Wisconsin has had among the lowest indemnity benefits per claim – payments for lost wages – paid to injured workers compared to the 16-state median. The lower indemnity benefits per claim with more than seven days of lost time resulted from several factors: a shorter duration of temporary disability, a shorter duration of medical treatment, a lower percentage of workers that lost more than a week off work, and less frequent and less costly permanent partial disability (PPD)/lump sum payments per claim.

The study reported that indemnity benefits per claim grew 20 percent in Wisconsin from 2003/2006 to 2006/20009, faster than the growth in the median study state (15 percent). This growth may have been driven by the early stages of the recession, an increase in the average weekly wage, and a rise in the duration of temporary disability.

Costs for all paid claims in Wisconsin were 30 percent lower than the typical study state in 2006/2009. Several factors contributed to this result: injured workers in Wisconsin had shorter duration of temporary disability, fewer cases involved PPD/lump-sum payments, and a lower average PPD/lump-sum payment per claim.

System features such as a two-tier PPD benefit structure, limits on lump sums, and an efficient dispute resolution process might explain the lower indemnity benefits per claim in Wisconsin, according to the study.

Injured workers in Wisconsin received their first indemnity payment faster than the workers in most of the study states in 2008/2009, with 52 percent of the workers in Wisconsin receiving indemnity payments within 21 days of injury, compared to 44 percent in the median of the 16 study states.

The Workers Compensation Research Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization conducting public policy research on workers’ compensation, healthcare and disability issues. Its members include employers, insurers, insurance regulators and state administrative agencies in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as several state labor organizations.

To order the report, go to the WCRI web site: www.wcrinet.org.

Source: BusinessWire

Reports Available for the Following States:

California Minnesota
Florida New Jersey
Illinois North Carolina
Louisiana Pennsylvania
Maryland Tennessee
Massachusetts  Texas
Michigan Wisconsin

Filed Under: Top Stories - Recent, WCW Inner Page Featured - Recent, Workers' Compensation

Primary Sidebar

Get Our Free Newsletter:

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: WorkCompWire.com, PO Box 1114, Culver City, CA, 90232, http://www.workcompwire.com. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

myMatrixx

Paradigm

One Call

Triton

Follow Us on Twitter

Tweets by WorkCompWire

Workers Compensation News Topics

  • Top Stories
  • Featured Articles
  • Leaders Speak
  • Editor’s Forum
  • The RxProfessor
  • Industry News
  • Association, Rating & Research News
  • People On The Move
  • Claims, Legal, & Compliance News
  • Legislative & Regulatory News
  • Risk Management News
  • Work Force & Human Resource News
  • Workers’ Compensation

Wire Archives

Copyright WorkCompWire © 2023