Workers’ Comp Research Institute (WCRI) released their 20^th Edition CompScope Benchmark studies which show that medical payments per workers’ comp claim increased in most states in 2018, after a period of relative stability. The studies analyze workers’ comp performance in 18 different states.

In Minnesota, medical payments per claim were fairly typical of the states studied with a few offsetting factors. Medical payments in Minnesota remained fairly stable between 2013 and 2017, before rising in 2018 at a rate of 6.5% for claims with more than 7 days of lost time at 12 months’ maturity. Indemnity benefits per claim were approximately $15,500 for 2016 claims evaluated in 2019, and the state’s average weekly temporary total disability benefit rates were in line with the other study states, though the percentage of claims with permanent partial disability or lump sum payments was lower than in other states.

In Indiana, total costs per claim changed little between 2013 and 2018, masking underlying changes from 2014 to 2016 in key cost components related to the state’s passage of a hospital fee schedule. Increases in indemnity benefits reflect income benefit provisions of the legislation and decreases in medical payments largely related to the introduction of a hospital fee schedule.

In North Carolina, total payments per claim with more than seven days of lost time have been stable since 2013 for claims at 12 months of experience, the result of offsetting factors. Indemnity benefits were stable between 2009 and 2013 and increased almost 3 percent per year from 2013 to 2018.

In Texas medical payments per claim declined more than 4 percent per year from 2015 to 2017 and were stable from 2013 to 2015, indemnity benefits per claim changed little from 2015 to 2018 after increasing 5 percent per year from 2013 to 2015.

In Virginia, the average medical payment per claim decreased 13 percent after implementation of a medical fee schedule starting January 1, 2018.

The 18 states in the study are Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. They look at the time from injury to first indemnity payment, the average total cost per claim, the average payment per claim for medical care and the average payment per claim for indemnity benefits as well as how state results may reflect system features and processes.

Read more from WCRI here.