WCRI FlashReport—Indemnity Benefits, Use of Medical Care, and Economic Conditions

By Bogdan Savych

October 7, 2021 Related Topics: COVID 19, Indemnity Benefits, Medical Costs, System Overview

This new FlashReport shows how indemnity benefits and medical utilization changed during the prior economic downturn and subsequent recovery. It also presents multiple measures describing changes in the labor market that are likely to shape trends in workers’ compensation payments for injuries in 2020 and 2021.

We believe that looking at past economic recessions is instructive for gaining insights into the relationships between economic conditions and workers’ compensation payments. These relationships could help the understanding of trends in compensation payments during the pandemic, though there are substantial differences between the COVID-related recession and previous recessions.

The report builds upon a presentation delivered at WCRI’s 2021 virtual conference. It highlights published data from external sources on labor market conditions available through August 2021, reflecting statistics through June or July 2021. Information on workers’ compensation payments comes from previously published data from WCRI’s CompScope™ Benchmarks and CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks studies covering 18 states.

WCRI FlashReport—Indemnity Benefits, Use of Medical Care, and Economic Conditions. Bogdan Savych. October 2021. FR-21-03.

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Research Questions:

  • What economic sectors have been most affected in terms of employment during the COVID recession?
  • What lessons ─ in terms of indemnity payments and medical costs ─ can be drawn from the Great Recession for the sectors with the largest drops in employment?
  • How important are behavioral factors, such as fear of losing one’s job after an injury, in shaping the time away from work and indemnity payments during the pandemic?
  • What other concerns should be guiding predictions regarding changes in workers’ compensation payments in the post-pandemic recovery

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