Recent Fee Schedule Study – Shows The Same Result As Always – Important
A recent fee schedule study was published recently by WCRI (Workers Comp Research Institute). The recent fee schedule study came to the same conclusions as many previous studies by WCRI and other organizations.
Free Fee Schedule Study Results
WCRI offers a free report on the changes in the overall nationwide medical price indices. You can find the report here.
I recommend keeping the fee schedule study on your laptop or phone for reference. Fee schedules do save employers on their workers’ compensation budgets.
I have written many articles about this subject that it earned its own category. Check out his search for all fee schedule articles including the hidden benefit of fee schedules for accurate reserves.
The above chart shows the growth rate of fees paid for professional services – from the free report – for the last 13 years. The study covers approximately 88% of the professional fee components paid on workers’ compensation medical payments in the US.
In one of those “chart says it all” situations, I will not go over all the numbers.
States = Still Expensive
Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin have always been ranked as among the most expensive states for Workers’ Compensation medical payments. I think once you review the chart you will see a distinct trend. Page 29 of the study (worth downloading) has even more examples of the effect of having or not having a fee schedule in a certain state.
Almost the same states are represented in the charts on page 29.
Hidden Benefit of Fee Schedules
One of the fee schedules is the ability for workers comp adjusters to more accurately predict the reserves on a file. If the medical fees are tied to a fixed fee schedule, then the amounts are much easier to predict for a file.
Some carriers and TPAs have algorithms that can be helpful in setting the 60-day reserves. Most of them are much more accurate in states with fixed fee schedules.
The free fee schedule study – medical price indices is over 170 pages. Reading over it is time well spent.
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