Workers Compensation Medical Fee Schedules
Workers Compensation medical fee schedules do cut comp costs.
After my last post, I received the question – Which states still do not have a fee schedule for their Workers Comp medical bills? After some research, I found out that there were now only five states left without a fee schedule. I did not delve into why they do not have one. I wanted to see if their medical bills were higher such as in the case of Tennessee before they enacted their modified fee schedule.
The five are:
- Iowa – was actually lower than the neighboring states with fee schedules
- Indiana – medical payouts were 33% higher than the median value.
- Missouri – were actually lower than the neighboring states with fee schedules
- New Hampshire – 73% of claim payouts were for medical, while neighboring states with fee schedules were at 49%.
- New Jersey – data is very hard to find on NJ as they have their own rating bureau.
- *Tennessee – even though they now have a fee schedule, their prior medical payouts were 36% higher than the median value.
This led me to research into whether these states have higher Workers Comp medical bill costs. What I found was that the states without a fee schedule were much more expensive than states with a fee schedule. Iowa and Missouri have both proved my theory as not completely accurate.
I could research the medical costs further, but for now I will just say that any state with runaway medical costs such as NH and IN should immediately enact fee schedules. As IA and MO have their medical costs under control, no fee schedule may be needed.
2020 Update – Iowa and Missouri became expensive states. Either state does not have a worker’s compensation medical fee schedule as of this year.
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