75% of COVID claim payments in California are for long COVID

Cases of long COVID account for a disproportionate share of costs among claims for COVID-19, according to data released Tuesday by The California Workers’ Compensation Institute.

Only one out of every 21 California workers compensation COVID-19 claims from accident years 2020 to 2022 involved medical treatment beyond 90 days from the injury date, but that small number of long COVID cases consumed 82.1% of the treatment payments on COVID claims and 73.7% of all COVID claim payments, the CWCI said

CWCI said its study, which reviewed 126,397 insured and self-insured COVID-19 claims, found that most were relatively inexpensive and that only 14.6% involved medical intervention.

However, nearly 6,000 claims, about 4.7%, involved longterm medical conditions that delayed or prevented return to work and resulted in significant costs, CWCI said.

Long COVID accounted for about $105.5 million of the $128.4 million in total medical payments for all COVID-19 claims. Long COVID also accounted for $258.3 million of the $350.6 million in medical treatment, indemnity and expense payments on all COVID claims.

Overall, average medical payments were 105 times higher on long COVID cases than on shorter duration COVID claims, and average indemnity payments were 37 times higher. Long COVID claim payments were significantly higher regardless of the body part involved, though the difference was most pronounced for injuries involving the lungs, multiple body parts and ‘other’ body parts, according to the report.

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