Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features WCRI’s recent release of the first edition of a new annual report on measures of the Delaware workers’ compensation system.
WCRI noted that in 2014, Delaware passed House Bill (HB) 373, which made changes to the workers’ compensation medical payment system. This new study examines total claim costs, medical payments, indemnity benefits, disability duration, benefit delivery expenses, timeliness of benefit payments to workers, and other metrics in the state, and analyzes how those metrics have changed over time from 2014 to 2019. Key findings included that total costs per claim decreased from 2014-19 due to a series of medical fee schedule reductions that were a focus of the 2014 legislation. Medical payments per claim decreased about 33% between 2014 and 2017, similar to the reform goal, and prescription drug payments per claim and utilization decreased from 2014-19 as well.