Do Zero-Cost Workers’ Compensation Medical Claims Really Have Zero Costs?

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Occup Environ Med
• Personal Author:
  Asfaw, Abay ; Rosa, Roger ; Mao, Rebecca
• Description:
  Objective
  
  Previous research suggests that non–workers’ compensation (WC) insurance systems, such as group health insurance (GHI), Medicare, or Medicaid, at least partially cover work-related injury and illness costs. This study further examined GHI utilization and costs.
  
  Methods
  
  Using two-part model, we compared those outcomes immediately after injuries for which accepted WC medical claims made zero or positive medical payments.
  
  Results
  
  Controlling for pre-injury GHI utilization and costs and other covariates, our results indicated that post-injury GHI utilization and costs increased regardless of whether a WC medical claim was zero or positive. The increases were highest for zero-cost WC medical claims.
  
  Conclusion
  
  Our national estimates showed that zero-cost WC medical claims alone could cost the GHI $212 million per year.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Ambulatory Care Article Drug Costs Female Health Care Costs Hospitalization Humans Insurance, Health Male Occupational Injuries Time Factors Workers' Compensation

  More +
• Source:
  J Occup Environ Med. 2013; 55(12):1394-1400.
• Pubmed ID:
  24316724
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4504204
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  HQP0/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  55
• Issue:
  12
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:da637130d8a894268ad60e595a8822ba4619472820fa5699bc7df4ad090ee90f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/32074/cdc_32074_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 367.50 KB ]