A study out from the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Division of Workers’ Compensation shows that a good number of workers in the state who have already made one compensation claim for an injury go on to suffer a subsequent injury. The study found that between 1998 and 2017, 40 percent of new claims each year were from workers who had at least one previous injury and workers’ compensation claim.

The system sees about 200,000 new claims a year and represents two percent of covered Texas employees. The Division’s Research and Evaluation Group (REG) looked at characteristics of injured employees who had single injuries and compared those characteristics to employees with multiply injuries. They found that reinjury rates were slightly higher among males and younger employees, and significantly higher among those in public administration and health care injuries.

Among new claims without a previous injury, 30 percent of them would have a second injury in 10 years. They found that 53 percent of claims and 51 percent of medical costs in the time studied were associated with multiple injury claims.

Medical and income benefit costs that were associated with the first injury in a multiple injury case were significantly lower than similar costs associated with a single injury case. They also found that the sum costs of the first and second injuries for employees claiming multiple injuries were significantly higher than those of employees claiming a single injury.

Use of “N” status drugs decreased significantly among single and multiple injury claims after the state’s pharmacy closed formulary. In multiple injury claims utilization of NSAIDs and musculoskeletal drugs was higher. In single injury claims the use of central nervous systems (CNS) drugs and opioids was slightly higher, perhaps because single injury claims were more likely to have severe injuries.

Researchers used medical billing and claims data from Injury Year 1998 to 2017. Injured employees were grouped into a control group with a single injury, and a case group with a second injury within four years of the first injury. For cost and utilization metrics they evaluated services for 12 months after the injury. Reinjury rates were calculated within this case-control study model, and for a set of factors, relative odds of having a second injury were estimated using logistic regression.

Researchers concluded that multiple injuries are “common and costly”, and that research may be needed to see whether and how multiple injuries might be reduced.

Read the full report here.