The 19th edition of this study provides a look at changes in the Indiana workers’ compensation system following significant legislation in 2013 and 2014. House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1320 addressed hospital costs, a key driver of higher-than-typical medical payments in Indiana, by enacting a hospital fee schedule effective July 1, 2014. The legislation also addressed the maximum statutory benefit, one factor in lower indemnity benefits per claim in Indiana, by increasing those benefits in three yearly increments beginning in 2014. The data in this report reflect up to three years of experience under the income benefit provisions of HEA 1320 (for 12-month claims) and up to four years of experience under the hospital fee schedule.

The study compares the performance of the Indiana workers’ compensation system with 17 other study states, focusing on income benefits, overall medical payments, costs, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, litigiousness, benefit delivery expenses, timeliness of payment, and other metrics. It also examines primarily how these system performance metrics have changed from 2012 to 2017. Claims with experience through March 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 Indiana, 19th Edition. Carol A. Telles. April 2019. WC-19-06.

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