Medical payments per comp claim rise: WCRI

Medical payments per workers compensation claim increased in most states in 2018 after a period of relative stability, according to a series of studies released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute’s 20th Edition CompScope Benchmark studies analyzed workers compensation performance metrics in 18 states.

In Minnesota, medical payments per claim and indemnity benefits per claim were fairly typical of the states studied. 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 seven days of lost time at 12 months’ maturity, according to the report. Indemnity benefits per claim in Minnesota 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 from 2013 to 2018, masking underlying changes from 2014 to 2016 in key cost components related to the state’s passage of a hospital fee schedule that took effect July 1, 2014, according to WCRI.