Report: Workers' comp medical costs soar - Denver Business Journal:

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The research also found that those costs woulx have been billions more without system reformsd earlierthis decade. The California Compensation Institute, a research organization made up of insurersaand self-insured employers, recently released the studhy on post-reform changes in workers’ comp medical payments in the Goldeh State. The study is the fourth in a five-parrt series updating data on claim outcomes following system reformsw between 2002and 2004.
All the data in the report reflecy when injuriesoccurred — known as the accident year instead of when an accident was Since 2005, insurance companies’ payments have increasex significantly for treatment, medications/durable medical medical-legal reports and medical management, the institute Between 2005 and average medical payments for all claims one year post-injury rose 23 percent, to $2,583 from $2,100, the study found. Meanwhile, “averags medical payments on more expensive indemnity claims climbed 28percent (from $4,443 to $5,665),” the report Even though medical costs are rising, the reforme are estimated to have saved cumulatively betweej $12.
8 billion and $25.3 billiobn in medical costs betweeb 2004 and 2008. Some of the medicao management tools put in place by the reforms were medicall treatmentutilization schedule, mandatory utilizatiojn review, bill review and medical provider networks. The institute estimates that withoutthe workers’ comp medical inflation would have continued at somewhere between 8.2 percent a year — which is half the pre-reformj annual inflation rate — and 16.4 which is the average annual inflation rate betweeh 1999 and 2002.