29 payers responded to this year’s Survey, ranging from very large TPAs to small state funds, from small guarantee associations to large insured employers and insurers. As always, no individually-identifiable information is disclosed or contained in the Survey report.
Here’s the key takeaways from our 17th Annual Survey of Prescription Drug Management in Workers’ Comp.
- Total work comp drug spend for 2020 was about $3 billion, or about 10% of total medical spend.
- That’s down from $4.8 billion a decade ago.
- Opioid spend decreased 19.3% from 2019 to 2020
- Pharmacy management remains important despite these decreases, primarily due to respondents’ view that drugs have a disproportionate influence on claim outcomes and disability duration.
You can download your copy of this year’s Survey here – just click on “resources” at the top. Previous Surveys are also listed and all are free to download.
Note that the public version at the link is not as extensive or detailed as the respondent version. As respondents invest time, energy, and brain power helping with the Survey, they get the detailed version.
