WCRI COVID-19 Session – Assessing the Impact
Impact of COVID-19 and the Shutdown on Claims and the Delivery of Medical Care
WCRI COVID-19 Session – Speakers: John Ruser, Ph.D., Olesya Fomenko, Ph.D.
Dr. Fomenko covered much ground very quickly in her presentation. She is probably one of the best presenters on data in a webinar setting.
I took handwritten notes as I could not watch the video and type at the same time.
MA, NJ, and SC – A dichotomy
The percentage of claims that were COVID-19 was led by Massachusetts at 59% – likely due to the pay-without-prejudice payments made in the state. New Jersey was a close second in the highest total of COVID-19 claims at 58% of reported claims.
The pay-without-prejudice period in MA is a very long 180 days without having to accept liability or make a liability decision on a Workers Comp claim.
South Carolina’s COVID-19 claim reporting rate came in the lowest at 5%.
One has to watch the amplification of the percentages. As the number of claims was reduced significantly, the percentages may be inflated when you divide out the total number of COVID-19 claims by the total of all claims.
# of COVID-19 Claims / Total Number of Claims = COVID-19 %
NM, IL, MI, and CT may have had an increased number of COVID-19 claims due to the presumption laws in effect during the pandemic.
WCRI COVID-19 Shocking Statistic
Nationwide, 60% of the claims came from high-risk industries. Those claims mainly originated with assisted living centers, hospitals, and physician’s offices. In CT, NJ, and MA 65% of the healthcare industry claims were COVID-19 related.
A side statistic was that MA showed a 50% drop in non-COVID-19 claims during the pandemic.
There were no or little delays in treatment for workers ‘ comp claims due to the COVID1-9 pandemic. Even CT, MA, and NJ had no increases in medical treatment delays.
Q&A WCRI COVID-19 session – The overall industry that was least affected when measuring the number of claims was the construction industries.
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