Workers comp inpatient hospital stays drop in California

Workers compensation inpatient hospital stays in California dropped by nearly one-third between 2010 and 2018, largely due to a decline in spinal fusions, according to a study released Friday by the California Workers Compensation Institute.

Oakland-based CWCI revealed in its California Workers Compensation Inpatient Hospital Trends 2010-2018 report that comp hospital stays, which represented 0.4% of all inpatient stays in the state in 2018, declined from 0.6% in 2010, representing a 31% decline. 

CWCI researchers believe this decline is due to 3.7 million Californians added to Medi-Cal rolls after the Affordable Care Act became available, as well as an uptick in the use of ambulatory surgery centers, the adoption of utilization review and independent medical review programs requiring that treatment meet evidence-based standards, technological and procedural advances that allow more services to be provided in outpatient settings and a 46% reduction in the number of spinal fusions since 2010.

The report used hospital discharge data from nearly 32.3 million inpatient hospital stays compiled by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.