10. Severity, cost of comp claims rose

While the workers compensation industry remains profitable, and injury frequency continues to decline year over year, concerns over the so-called severity trend continued to plague the industry.

A story analyzing the industry’s concerns over the impact of aging workers and expensive comorbidities on injury severity and the accompanying increase in medical costs was the 10th most-read workers compensation-related article this year on Business Insurance’s website.

A key driver, some said, was that advances in medical technology were costing employers and insurers more in comp claims costs.

But lower frequency has helped offset the increases, in part, according to industry experts who discussed the high-risk field of construction work at the 42nd International Risk Management Institute Inc. Construction Risk Conference in Las Vegas in November.