The California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) released a study that tracked the number of workers’ comp related hospital stays and spinal surgeries in the state between 2008 and 2016, and they found that both fell significantly.

The number of inpatient hospital stays fell 31.2 percent in those years. Private plan inpatient hospital stays decreased 19.6 percent, while Medicare inpatient stays increased 2.4 percent and Medi-Cal inpatient stays increased 19.6 percent. Medi-Cal is the state’s free or low-cost health care program, and they witnessed an enrollment boost of 3.7 million adults in the state when Affordable Care Act plans were rolled out in 2014.

There are several contributing factors to the decline in workers’ comp inpatient stays. The study shows that claim volume declined, utilization of ambulatory surgery centers increased, utilization review and independent medical review programs required that certain treatments meet evidence-based standards, more services were being offered in outpatient settings due to technological advances, and the elimination of duplicate payments for spinal implant hardware from the state’s workers’ comp inpatient fee schedule contributed to the decreased of spinal fusion procedures by 36 percent.

The study also took note of the most common workers’ comp inpatient diagnosis-related group codes and the top major diagnostic categories.

Researchers used data compiled by the state Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, reviewing over 32 million inpatient hospital stays recorded between 2008 and 2016. Of the four medical systems reviewed, workers’ comp is the smallest. It accounted for 0.5 percent of all stays in 2016, down from 0.7 percent in 2008.

Read the press release from CWCI.