Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features CWCI’s announcement of the release of a new report that found the number of California workers’ comp inpatient hospital stays fell 31.2% from 2008-2016, compared to a 19.6% drop in hospital stays paid under private plans, a 2.4% increase in Medicare inpatient stays, and a 19.6% increase in inpatient stays paid by Medi-Cal, which saw a huge jump in enrollment with the rollout of ACA plans.
The study notes that the steady drop in workers’ comp inpatient stays from 2008 to 2016 came as claim volume declined, use of ambulatory surgery centers increased, utilization review and independent medical review programs required that treatment requests meet evidence-based medicine standards, technological and procedural advances allowed more services to be provided in outpatient settings, and the number of spinal fusions fell by 36% after duplicate payments for spinal implant hardware were eliminated from the workers’ comp inpatient fee schedule.
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