State variation in treatment costs for injured workers marked: Study

Prices paid for a similar set of medical services varied significantly across states, ranging from 26% below the 35-state median in Florida to 158% above the 35-state median in Wisconsin in 2017, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research institute examined fee schedules and price trends in 35 states, representing 87% of the workers comp industry, for services that included evaluation and management, physical medicine, surgery, major radiology, minor radiology, neurological testing, pain management injections and emergency care, according to a press statement.

Specifically, the study compares medical prices paid in those 35 states and tracks price changes in most states over a 10-year span from 2008 to 2017, according to the statement.

The study’s finding included:

• States with no fee schedules for professional services had higher prices paid compared with states with fee schedules — 39 to 168% higher than the median of the study states with fee schedules in 2017.
• Changes in prices paid for professional services exhibited variation across states, spanning a 17 percent decrease in Illinois to a 39% increase in Wisconsin from 2008 to 2017.
• Most states with no fee schedules experienced faster growth in prices paid for professional services compared with states with fee schedules — the median growth rate among the non-fee schedule states was 30% from 2008 to 2017, compared with the median growth rate of 6% among the fee schedule states.