Day on Torts
I know that this article is off-topic, but I could not let it pass.
It seems that claim severity is down in the worker’s compensation market. This article reports that "[o]verall injury rates have dropped by an average of 3.9% per year since 1996 including an estimated 4.5% decline in 2005, according to the 2006 study. But for the two most recent years, high-cost claims have shared equally in the frequency decline …."
Does this mean rates will be coming down? Nope – because medical costs have seen average increases of 9.1% each of the last four years.
Amazing. Someday our Legislature will understand that the only way to get a handle on comp costs is to get a grip on medical costs. Everyone knows that injured workers are a cash cow for the health care industry – the rate of reimbursement paid by employers (or their insurers) exceeds that of almost every other payor.
Here is a copy of the complete study.