A study out from the University of Texas at Austin linked the amount of sessions of physical therapy that injured workers go through with the amount of time they take off work for recovery. They found that injured workers who take time off work to recover and who attend more than 15 sessions of physical therapy are out of the workforce longer and their claims are six times more likely to cost more.

The authors of the study analyzed 192,197 claims from a large Texas-based workers’ compensation insurer between 2013 and 2017, and they were looking for the relationship between the amount of physical therapy delivered and workers’ comp costs and lost-time. Claims were classified in four categories of PT- from 0 to 3 sessions, 4-9 sessions, 10-14 and over 15.

They found that closed, indemnity claims with 15 or more physical therapy visits were six times more likely to result in high medical costs, the average indemnity for these nonsurgical claims was $19,013 or almost $10,000 more than the category with 10-14 PT visits. Average medical costs for those claims with more than 15 PT visits were $18,494, again almost 410,000 more than the average cost for the 10-14 session group.

For surgical claims that had more than 15 sessions, the combined indemnity and medical average was $71,014, $31,627 more than the average for the 10-14 session group.

The claims with 15 or more sessions were four times more like to result in at least 6 months of lost-time.

Buy the study here and read more here.