Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the release of another edition of WCRI’s CompScope Medical Benchmarks, which examined the Illinois system and found that medical payments per workers’ compensation claim were lower than three of its neighboring states (Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin) but higher than the median study state.
WCRI noted that medical payments per claim in Illinois were about 9% lower than those in Indiana and Iowa, and 17% lower than those in Wisconsin. Medical payments per claim in Illinois decreased by 3% per year from 2019-2021, mainly driven by a decrease in utilization of medical services, likely due to the pandemic. Other key findings included that prices for many types of professional services increased similarly to the annual changes in the medical fee schedule rates.