Report Highlights Improvement in Comp Costs, Claim Frequency

Employers are paying less for workers’ compensation insurance than they did two years ago, thanks to reform legislation passed in 2011 and efforts to improve workplace safety, which led to a reduction in claims last year, the Montana Department of Labor said in its annual workers’ compensation report.The 2011 reform measure, House Bill 334, prohibited permanent disability awards based on subjective complaints of pain, required annual reviews of evidence-based treatment guides and tied the state’s Medical Fee Schedule to Medicare’s Resource-Based Relative Value Scale.Wit...