Florida Doctors Dispute Workers’ Comp Drug Cost Claim

Florida doctors are disputing a state report saying drugs they dispensed directly to patients are raising workers’ compensation rates.

The Florida Medical Association said that doctors have been unfairly targeted in a report issued by the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR).

The OIR report says that workers’ compensation premiums paid by employers have dropped 56 percent under a 2003 law designed to reduce rates although they have increased in each of the past three years. It said further reductions would be possible if Florida limited how much doctors charge for drugs they sell to patients.

The FMA says that’s a bogus claim because the report itself shows no difference in the cost of drugs dispensed by doctors or pharmacies.

The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), which represents insurers, has maintained that physician dispensing is a major factor behind workers’ comp rates and blamed physicians for $380 million in hikes the past three years.

But the doctors’ group is pushing back. “The truth is that the NCCI and carriers have used physician dispensing as a scapegoat for hundreds of millions of dollars in rate increases when other medical costs have been the real cost drivers in workers’ compensation,” the group charged. “The numbers are fabricated in an attempt to eliminate doctor dispensing.”