Cambridge, MA – In an effort to address one of the highest fee schedules in the nation, Illinois enacted a 30 percent reduction in their medical fee schedule in 2011. Since then many have wondered about the impact.
Join WCRI researchers and co-authors, Dr. Rebecca Yang and Dr. Olesya Fomenko, for an hour-long webinar as they discuss the findings from a recently published study, The Effect of Reducing the Illinois Fee Schedule, on Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 1pm ET (12pm CT, 11am MT, and 10am PT).
Dr. Yang will describe how prices paid for medical services changed after the fee schedule reduction and whether there were any services for which the cuts may have been so large as to raise concerns about access to care for injured workers. For example, the workers’ compensation prices paid for the most common office visit were 18 percent lower than the estimated group health prices and 15 percent lower than the Medicare rates in 2012.
You will also hear from Dr. Fomenko that following the fee schedule reduction, prices paid for common surgeries were 107-231 percent higher than prices paid by Illinois group health insurers and 237-455 percent higher than the Medicare rates in Illinois. This raises the question about whether the reductions could have been even larger without negatively affecting a surgeon’s ability to practice in Illinois.
Things you will learn:
- Whether the fee schedule change produced prices that are too low or too high.
- Whether the 30 percent reduction in the fee schedule would produce a 30 percent change in the average medical cost of a claim.
- How the post-reform prices compared to the pre-reform prices in Illinois, which were higher than most states.
Attendance is limited to 100 people and all attendees receive a free copy of the slides. Webinars are $39 for WCRI Members; $79 for Non-Members; and no charge for members of the press, legislators as well as their staff, and state public officials who make policy decisions impacting their state’s workers’ compensation system.
Click here to register: WCRI Webinar: Effect of Reducing the Illinois Fee Schedule
Source: WCRI