Cambridge, MA – The costs of medical care per claim for injured workers in Virginia were among the highest of any state in a 16-state study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).
The study, CompScope Medical Benchmarks for Virginia 14th Edition, shows medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in Virginia were 22 percent higher than the median of the study states.
“Virginia is one of the states that does not regulate payments for hospital services,” said Ramona Tanabe, WCRI’s deputy director and counsel. “WCRI has found states with no fee schedule or a percent-of-charge-based fee schedule have higher costs compared with states with a per-procedure-based fee schedule.”
Among the study’s findings:
- Higher prices for nonhospital services and higher payments per service for hospital outpatient providers were the major cost drivers for medical care in Virginia.
- Hospital payments per claim for both outpatient and inpatient services were among the highest of the study states.
- Growth in medical payments in Virginia changed little between 2010 and 2011, after growing at an average of 7.2 percent per year prior to 2011.
- Stable medical payments per claim between 2010 and 2011 reflected two offsetting factors: an increase in prices paid for medical care and a decline in utilization of medical services.
Click on the following link to purchase a copy of this study: CompScope Medical Benchmarks for Virginia 14th Edition
Source: WCRI