WCRI: Moderate Growth in Medical Payments Reverses Trend of Decreases Following Reforms

Medical payments in California are on the rise, but the increase coming out of Senate Bill 863 is more moderate than what happened as the effects of the reforms enacted in the early 2000s waned, according to a new report by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. Medical payments per claim with at least seven days of lost time grew 4% in California in 2017 and 2018, WCRI reported in the 20th edition of its CompScope Medical Benchmarks report for the Golden State. The growth rate compared to annual increases of 6% to 9% from 2005 to 2009. WCRI cited two “major factors” c...