Lower Hospital Payments Help Stabilize Medical Costs

Lower hospital payments per claim have helped stabilize medical payments in North Carolina since 2009 following annual 6% and 7% increases from 2004-09, the Workers Compensation Research Institute said Tuesday. The 18-state CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks for North Carolina, 17th Edition study also concluded that prices paid for most non-hospital services changed little, and use of some medical services decreased. However, hospital payments per claim still were higher than in many states, while non-hospital costs per claim were lower than what is typical. “That decrease [in ho...