Work comp: Access to care and medical inflation

WCRI's latest research is timely indeed.

There were no appreciable differences in the outcomes of injured workers (IWs) first treated by nurse practitioners or physician assistants compared to those treated by physicians for non-emergent care.

That’s the key takeaway from WCRI’s excellent new study available here.

The one difference that did stand out was access to care in rural areas; IWs were treated significantly sooner by NPs/PAs than IWs treated by MDs.

As access to care in rural America is fast approaching a crisis, the need for more advanced practitioners is accelerating as well.

This study follows a very useful report released last month that sheds light on medical inflation in work comp.

Key takeaways include:

• There was no evidence of inflation in overall healthcare spend from 2021 to 2025; annual medical prices increased by 3% on average.

• work comp medical payments shrank in the COVID years,

• then increased in post-COVID years.

Net effect is medical inflation in workers’ comp has been significantly lower than overall inflation.

However - and there’s always a however - those data are national averages, and some states have seen significant increases while others have experienced the opposite. After COVID, some states saw big jumps, with Kentucky and Louisiana averaged double-digit increases from 2021/22 to 2023/24.

Notably KY’s big increase looks to be making up for a 10% annual decrease in spend during COVID years; LA had a 4% decrease in that time.

What does this mean for you?

When you think about inflation, its critical to understand the base year.