Here are a few highlights from today’s WCRI conference
– medical cost growth from 01/02 to 03/04 was in the 8-12 pct. range, driven primarily by increased utilization
– there is a strong correlation between utilization and disability duration, with a 10 pct change in utilization associated with a 4 pct change in duration.
– early returns from CA indicate the recent reforms are having a significant impact on medical costs with a particularly large drop in physical medicine expenses (around 50 pct)
– a study by CWCI (www.cwci.org) indicates that relatively few physicians’ treatment of claimants are consistent with ACOEM treatment guidelines. This particularly interesting as the new regulations state ACOEM’S guidelines are viewed as presumptively correct: they take precedence over the treating physician when there is a disagreement. The full study is available on CWCI’s site.
– MA and FL, two states with historically low physician fee schedules have disproportionally more complex office visits than the median state. This is consistent with other studies which indicate low fee schedules are associated with billing practices featuring a higher proportion of higher value services.
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Nov
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