Medical Inflation, Recession Among Potential Pitfalls Detailed by NCCI

Medical inflation, which has been “muted” in recent years, is forecast to accelerate in 2020 — one piece of potential bad news for the workers’ comp industry in a new report from the National Council on Compensation Insurance. But on a brighter note, payments for drugs fell 15.4% from 2014 to 2018, driven mainly by decreases in opioids prescribed to injured workers. Not only did payments for opioids decrease in that period, but payments for other drugs in claims with opioids also dropped. “Lower usage of opioids also reduces the need for nonopioid drugs to ...