What happens to work comp claims when hospitals close?
Dr Bogdan Savych’s presentation at WCRI is the first assessment of the effects of hospital closures on work comp claims - kudos to WCRI and Dr Savych for focusing on this critical issue.
Quick takeaways…
Most of the impact - unsurprisingly – affects claims incurred in rural areas.
Before hospital closures took effect, almost 1/3 of injured workers in rural areas received care from a hospital Emergency Department (ED) compared to 1/5th for those injured in an urban area.
Note - ED care is almost always much more expensive than non-ED care.The use of EDs in rural areas dropped by a few percentage points after hospital closures - my guess is that’s because hospitals weren’t convenient anymore, so injured workers went to whatever healthcare resource/provider/facility was available.
It could also be those hospitals still treated injured workers but in a different department.
Reality is after complete hospital closure – not just a department shut down - just 17% of workers received emergency room care.
Time to access care is a big issue in comp - and that’s a growing problem.
The biggest difference between rural and urban areas is for injured workers seeking specialty care…which implies more complex, costly, and longer duration claims
What does this mean for you?
Underwriters and managed care folks need to pay attention - higher medical costs, likely a shift as more claims become lost time, and longer recovery times are all “must considers”.