Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features WCRI’s release of a new edition of its CompScope Medical Benchmarks report, which examined the Indiana system and found that medical payments per claim decreased in the state for 2020 injuries with experience through March 2021 after growing in 2019, likely reflecting factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
WCRI noted that medical payments per claim were higher than typical in Indiana, mainly due to prices paid for medical services. Utilization decreased for most nonhospital and hospital outpatient services in 2020. Prescription drug payments per claim were lower than other states – prices and utilization decreased between 2015 and 2020. WCRI also found that the decreases in medical payments per claim likely showed COVID-19’s impact through postponed or avoided medical care due to concerns about COVID, and temporary suspensions of non-emergency surgeries during the early months of the pandemic.