This 21st edition of the CompScope™ Benchmarks study examines changes in the California workers’ compensation system for claims with experience through March 2020. California implemented multiple policy changes in recent years. The drug formulary required by Assembly Bill (AB) 1124 was fully implemented in April 2018. Results in this report reflect up to 24 months of experience following the implementation of the drug formulary. AB 1244 and Senate Bill (SB) 1160, two major fraud-fighting measures, were enacted in January 2017. Finally, SB 863, a comprehensive piece of reform legislation, went into effect in January 2013.

The study compares the performance of state workers’ compensation systems in California and 17 other states, focusing on costs, income benefits, overall medical payments, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, frequency and payments of permanent partial disability/lump-sum claims, benefit delivery expenses,  litigiousness, timeliness of payments, and other metrics. It also examines how these system performance metrics have changed, primarily from 2014 to 2019 for claims at various claim maturities; in some cases, we used a longer time frame to supply historical context.

Note that the results we report include experience on claims through March 2020, at the very beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The study, therefore, provides a pre-COVID-19 baseline for evaluating the impact of the virus on workers’ compensation claims. 

CompScope™ Benchmarks for California, 21st Edition. William Monnin-Browder. April 2021. WC-21-02.

Copyright: WCRI