An analysis of costs per claim and other performance indicators across 18 state workers compensation systems for claims through March 2020 for injuries up to and including 2019 show stable to modest increases, according to a series of reports released Thursday by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute said that studies include experience on claims at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a “good baseline” for future evaluation of the impact of the virus on workers comp claims.
The data studied includes the average total cost per claim, the average payment per claim for medical care, and the average payment per claim for indemnity benefits. 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, Iowa and Tennessee.
Highlights of the reports include:
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers compensation claims varied substantially by state in the first half of 2020, with claims figures significantly affected by outbreak severity and whether a coronavirus presumption order or law was in place, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.