New Workers’ Compensation Research Institute Examines Payments Prices and Utilization Reviews
A new set of studies released by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) examines the factors behind trends in medical payments per claim in state workers’ compensation systems and the impact of legislative and regulatory changes on those costs. The studies cover a period from 2014 through 2019. This is the 22nd edition of medical benchmarks. It is helpful in understanding the affects of COVID-19 for the future by setting a baseline.
There were 18 states included in the analysis. Texas was one of the states. The key findings related to Texas are as follows:
Medical payments per claim were lower than the typical state and have been mostly stable since 2014, though payments per claim increased from 2017 to 2019 after three years of decreases. The 2017–2019 increases were driven mainly by double-digit growth in hospital payments per inpatient episode.
Overall the news in Texas was good – especially compared to other states. The concern from the increases in inpatient hospital treatments may be related to COVID cases. Continual study and observation is needed to confirm.
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