This study helps policymakers and other system stakeholders in North Carolina identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in total costs per claim and key components.

It compares the performance of North Carolina’s workers’ compensation system with 17 other states, focusing on income benefits, overall medical payments, use of benefits, duration of temporary disability, benefit delivery expenses, 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 maturities. We analyze claims with experience through 2024 for injuries up to and including 2023, and in some cases, we use a longer time frame to supply historical context. For example, major legislation enacted in 2011 focused on indemnity benefits and fee schedule changes enacted in 2015 impacted medical payments. Using longer time frames, we can observe how the legislation impacted trends in indemnity benefit components and medical payments.

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 North Carolina, 2025 Edition. Carol A. Telles. April 2025. WC-25-13.

Copyright: WCRI