The 19th edition of this study provides an early look at changes in the Florida workers’ compensation system following two decisions issued by the Florida Supreme Court in 2016. The Castellanos decision in April 2016 declared the mandatory worker attorney fee schedule in workers’ compensation unconstitutional as a violation of due process. The Westphal decision in June 2016 ruled that the state’s 104-week limitation on temporary total disability benefits is unconstitutional as a denial of right of access to the courts. The data in this report reflect up to two years of experience after the two court rulings.

Also, Florida implemented medical fee schedule changes for all types of medical providers in 2015 and 2016. This report includes analysis of these changes.  

The study compares the performance of the Florida workers’ compensation system with 17 other study 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 2012 to 2017, for claims at various claim maturities. Claims with experience through 2018 for injuries up to and including 2017 were analyzed. In some cases, a longer time frame was used to supply historical context.

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Florida, 19th Edition. Rui Yang. April 2019. WC-19-03.

Copyright: WCRI