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WCRI releases comp state trends reports

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WCRI trends reports

The Workers Compensation Research Institute on Tuesday released its latest set of state reports, updating workers compensation policymakers and stakeholders on trends and cost-drivers in 18 individual states.

In its 19th year, the CompScope reports provide in-depth analyses of comp systems, examining how income benefits, overall medical payments, duration of temporary disability, litigiousness, benefit delivery expenses, and timeliness of first indemnity payment change over time, and the states compare to each other.

The state reports, each over 200 pages, explore such factors as 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.

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. There are individual reports for every state except Arkansas and Iowa.

Each report ranks states in terms of indemnity benefits per claim, costs of claims with more than seven days lost time, and medical payments per claim, among other measures.

According to the reports:

  • The median indemnity costs per claim across the states for three years starting in 2015 was $17,778, with North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia ranked in the top three and Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas in the bottom three.
  • The median cost per claim with more than seven days lost time between 2015 and 2018 was $41,888, with Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia ranked in the top three and Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas in the bottom three.
  • The median medical payments per claim in 2017 was $13,524, with Wisconsin, Virginia, and Indiana ranked in the top three and Massachusetts, California and Texas ranked in the bottom three.
  • Twenty-nine percent was the median percentage of 2015 claims with more than seven days of lost time and 36 months of experience that had a defense attorney involved. Among the states with the highest attorney involvement were Illinois, New Jersey and California. Those with the lowest were Texas, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

 

 

 

 

 

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