Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features NCCI’s release of the second in its new series of reports on Inflation and Workers’ Compensation medical costs, which stakeholders indicate is one of the top-of-mind issues they’re facing.
Part 1 explored medical cost trends across different types of medical services to further understand how the current inflationary environment is affecting workers’ comp medical costs. One of the primary observations from that installment was that facility services have been the biggest driver of increased medical costs for workers compensation in recent years, and the new second installment examines how different types of facility services contribute to countrywide and regional facility cost trends. NCCI notes that across facility types, increases in the amount paid per visit were the main drivers of increased facility costs for the past decade. Hospital outpatient services are the most prominent contributor to the increase in facility costs.