Workers in Mass., Pa. Fare Better After Injuries Than In Other States
Injured workers located in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania report more satisfactory outcomes than their counter parts in Texas, according to a study by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).
The study, Outcomes for Injured Workers in California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas, analyzed the workers’ perceived recovery of physical health and functioning, return to work, access to health care and satisfaction with health care in four important states.
The study reported that outcomes in all categories were generally better in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts than in Texas, even though Texas employers spent 46 percent to 135 percent more on health care per case than employers in the other two states.
Similar results were
found when comparing Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to California, where California employers spent 32 percent to 113 percent more on medical care per case than in the other two states.
The better outcomes in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were probably not the result of having less severe injuries that would produce better outcomes at lower medical costs per case. Workers in all four states reported similar levels of perceived injury severity.
In spite of receiving more medical services, on average, than workers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Texas and California workers report that they had recovered less of their preinjury physical health and functioning than did workers in the other two states, said the study.
“For cases with similar severity, one might expect that getting more medical care would increase rates of return to work, speed the initial return to work and increase the odds that workers would stay at work once they returned,” said Dr. Richard Victor, executive director of the Cambridge, Mass.-based WCRI.
“In the case of Texas and California, all of these outcomes were not as good as those in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania—states where workers, on average, received fewer medical services per claim,” he said.
The study found that:
• Although workers in all four states reported similar pre-injury levels of health and functioning, workers in Texas and California reported the least satisfactory recoveries of physical health and
functioning.
• Workers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania achieved better return-to-work outcomes than did workers in Texas and California. In Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, workers were more likely to have (1) any return-to-work, however brief it might be, (2) a return to work that was more substantial, lasting for at least one month (a “substantial” return to work, and (3) substantial returns to work sooner.
• An overwhelming majority of workers in all four states reported they were able to obtain timely access to the providers and services they sought. However, some workers (9 percent to 20 percent, depending on the question asked) reported big problems in accessing the desired providers or services. Texas workers reported similar access to providers as workers in the other states, but poorer access to specific services that they or their provider desired.
• Most workers surveyed (80 percent to 85 percent) reported that, overall, they were somewhat or very satisfied with their medical care. When workers reported on satisfaction with initial providers, however, there were large differences. In California, only 68 percent of injured workers reported that they were somewhat or very satisfied with their initial providers, compared with 78 percent in Pennsylvania and Texas and 84 percent in Massachusetts.
Victor cautioned policymakers not to regard the interstate comparisons in the study as a definitive basis for policy actions, noting that as more states are added to the
worker outcome studies, the information and indications are expected to become
stronger.
“Combined with other benchmarks of costs, these comparisons will allow public officials and system stakeholders to identify critical ‘win-win’ situations for workers
and their employers—improvements in
the system that would result in better worker outcomes without raising employers’ costs
or those that lower costs without
adversely affecting worker outcomes,” said Victor.
In related news, WCRI released a new tool for policymakers and others interested in comparing states’ workers’ compensation systems. CompScope annually tracks changes in state trends and system performance.
It provides comparisons for more than 60 performance measures for 12 large states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
The benchmarks provide answers to how the performance of a state system compare with that of other states and how a state system is changing over time.
The study was conducted in collaboration with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Survey Research and Analysis, and co-authored with Professor Peter S. Barth. The Workers’ Compensation Research Institute can be found at www.wcrinet.org.