September 5, 2019 by WorkCompWire

Oakland, CA – The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) recently released the California Workers’ Compensation Aggregate Medical Payment Trends report comparing medical payment information from 2016 to 2018. The report also includes an analysis on utilization and cost of opioid prescriptions over time and by region.

Key findings from the report included:

  • Overall medical payments continued to decline in 2018 as the medical payments per claim decreased.
  • The medical payments for pharmaceuticals and to pharmaceutical providers declined sharply.
  • Physical therapy services experienced the largest increase in the share of medical payments driven by increases in both service utilization and paid per service.
  • Physical medicine and rehabilitation procedures continued to grow the fastest within all physician services and use of anticonvulsants increased more significantly than any other therapeutic groups.
  • Opioid prescriptions and costs declined significantly, mostly driven by fewer claims involving opioid prescriptions. In addition, average doses of opioids prescribed dropped sharply as did the concurrent use of opioids and sedatives.
  • Fresno, Bakersfield and Tulare areas had the highest share of claims involving opioid prescriptions, while the Silicon Valley area and the Los Angeles Basin had the lowest share.

Read the entire report:

WCIRB: California’s Workers’ Compensation Aggregate Medical Payment Trends – Updated through Calendar Year 2018

Source: CA WCIRB