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Oakland, CA – A new study finds treatment patterns for California workers’ comp professional medical services have stabilized in recent years, with only minor changes in the utilization rates and volume of services rendered to injured workers within the first two years for indemnity claims with 2014 through 2019 initial treatment dates, and within the first six months for indemnity claims with 2018 through 2021 initial treatment dates.
The study uses data from CWCI’s Industry Research Information System (IRIS) database to analyze professional medical services from non-COVID indemnity claims to determine the percent of claims that involved a major surgery within two years of the initial treatment date. The authors then calculated the percent of claims with and without major surgery from each of the initial treatment years that utilized Evaluation and Management (E&M); Physical Medicine; Advanced Imaging; Mental Health; and Injection services. Among the key findings:
The full study provides a detailed look at California workers’ compensation professional medical service utilization trends for initial treatment years 2014 through 2021, including graphics and additional analyses. CWCI has published the study in a Research Update Report, “Patterns in the Provision of Professional Medical Services in California Workers’ Compensation” which is available in the Research section at www.cwci.org.