TEXAS LEADS IN WC COSTS

Texas had the highest average total cost per workers’ compensation claim ($14,465) of eight states reviewed in an independent study released by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), “CompScope Benchmarks: Multistate Comparisons, 1994-1999.” In the eight states reviewed by the study, which included California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the median claim was $11,224. The average medical benefit per claim in Texas was $7,650, two and one-half times the cost of medical benefits in Massachusetts, which had the lowest medical payments of the states studied. Indemnity benefits per claim in Texas averaged $5,881, about double those in Wisconsin, which had the lowest indemnity benefit payments. The study shows that costs for workers’ compensation benefits in Texas have increased significantly during recent years. According to the study, the costs of medical benefits and indemnity benefits—wage replacement payments for lost-time injuries—rose nearly 10 percent from 1997 to 1998, considering the experience with the claims through 1999. Growth in medical and income benefit costs was about equal. The report found that an increase in claims with more than seven days of lost time contributed to the growth in indemnity costs, as did a steady growth in permanent partial disability (PPD) claims.