This study helps policymakers and other system stakeholders in Minnesota identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in total costs per claim and key components, namely indemnity benefits, medical payments, and benefit delivery expenses.

It compares the performance of state workers’ compensation systems in Minnesota and 17 other states, focusing on income benefits, overall medical payments, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, frequency and payments of permanent partial disability (PPD)/lump-sum claims, benefit delivery expenses, litigiousness, timeliness of payments, and other metrics.

Additionally, the study examines how these system performance metrics have changed, mainly from 2018 to 2023, for claims at various claim maturities. We analyze claims with experience through 2024 for injuries up to and including 2023, and, in some cases, a longer time frame is used to supply historical context. Information from other studies is also used to provide a more complete picture of the system.

The results reflect claims experience through March 2024, including non-COVID-19 claims. As a result, the study provides a detailed look at how the pandemic-related disruptions affected non-COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims in the early pandemic years (2019–2021) and more recently (2021–2023).

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Minnesota, 2025 Edition. Rebecca Yang. April 2025. WC-25-11.

Copyright: WCRI