This study can help policymakers and other stakeholders in Wisconsin identify current cost drivers and emerging trends in payments for indemnity benefits, medical care, and benefit delivery expenses. It compares the performance of workers’ compensation systems in 17 states, focusing on total claim costs, indemnity benefits, overall medical payments, disability duration, benefit delivery expenses, timeliness of benefit payments to workers, and other metrics. The study also examines how these metrics have changed, mainly from 2016 to 2021, for claims at various maturities with experience as of March 2022. A longer time frame may be used to supply historical context for certain metrics. Findings from other Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) studies are included to provide a comprehensive picture of the system. 

Note that the results we report reflect experience on claims through March 2022, including non-COVID-19 claims from the first and second years of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 through September 2021). The study, therefore, provides a look at how the pandemic impacted non-COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims in the first two years of the pandemic.  

CompScope™ Benchmarks for Wisconsin, 23rd Edition. Evelina Radeva. April 2023. WC-23-14.

Copyright: WCRI