Medical costs in comp increasing across most states: Report

Workers compensation medical costs per claim rose 5% to 14% in recent years in most of 18 states examined by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

For studies of 18 states, WCRI examined medical payments, prices and utilization overall, by provider, and by type of service,  showing how these metrics have changed over time. It did not include COVID claims costs. WCRI released 13 individual state reports Thursday, each diving into the nuances of state increases.

In Pennsylvania, medical payments per claim increased 14 % in 2023 after years of decreases, reflecting, in part, larger recent annual updates to the state’s medical fee schedule, according to the report on that state, WCRI said in a statement providing highlights from the reports.

After several years of stable medical payments in California since 2018, the state recently saw a 5% increase in medical payments per claim, with increases for several nonhospital services, including physical medicine services, contributing to that growth.

In Delaware, medical payments per claim grew 7% per year from 2021 to 2023, driven by price increases in professional and hospital outpatient services. The increase aligned with Delaware’s fee schedule, which is adjusted based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

Medical payments per claim in Wisconsin grew 6% per year from 2021 to 2023 after years of small changes. Wisconsin, which has had some of the highest medical payments per claim among the study states, recently passed legislation introducing a medical fee schedule for hospital services.

Costs per claim were flat in five of the states studied.