Virginia medical costs dip with comp fee schedule
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The average medical payment per claim in Virginia decreased 13% after the state implemented a workers compensation medical fee schedule in 2018, according to study details released by the Workers Compensation Research Institute on Thursday.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute in total studied comp reforms in 17 states, culling data for significant changes. Overall, across the states, researchers saw increases in medical spending, according to an overall report issued April 16.
In Virginia, the fee schedule was a “main factor” behind an 8% decrease in the total costs per claim in Virginia comparing 2017 costs with that of 2018, according to the latest in-depth report on that state alone.
“The decrease in medical payments per claim in Virginia in 2018 likely reflects the decrease in medical prices resulting from the implementation of the medical fee schedule,” Ramona Tanabe, executive vice president and general counsel of WCRI, said in a statement.
“In previous studies, WCRI found that medical prices for nonhospital services in Virginia decreased 14% between 2017 and 2018, the first year that the fee schedule was in effect, although the price decrease varied across different services,” she said.
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