The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) released an Insights brief that aims to compare the quantity and prices of physician services between the workers’ compensation and group health systems.

Titled “Comparing the Quantity and Prices of Physician Services Between Workers Compensation and Group Health”, the study found that for a selected group of injuries, workers’ comp pays more than group health to treat comparable injuries. The quantity differences dominate price differences, explaining 80% of the cost difference for a select group of 12 common workers’ comp medical conditions. Quantity differences vary by type of injury, and all the injuries considered show a higher quantity of services for workers’ comp than for group health.

They found that price differences are more related to the jurisdiction than to the type of injury, due, in part to the different workers’ comp physician fee schedules that apply by state. Trauma to arms and legs have the smaller cost and quantity differences, while chronic or pain-related injuries like bursitis and back pain, have larger differences.

The differences between workers’ comp and group health depend on the medical service category. Evaluation, management, radiology and physical medicine costs are higher in comp due to the greater quantity of these services even in states where comp prices are lower than group health. Higher comp costs for surgery are driven more by higher prices than by quantity.

The most pronounced difference between workers’ comp and group health is the higher quantity of physical medicine services in comp, which may be partly due to cost sharing in group health.

Read the full brief here.