Study Traces COVID-19 Impact on New York Workers’ Compensation Claims

During the height of the pandemic, New York workers’ compensation indemnity payments increased while medical payments decreased.

That’s according to a new report from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) that found that indemnity benefits per claim grew 10% for 2020 non-COVID-19 claims evaluated in 2021 after being mostly stable since 2015 in the state.

The same report also found that medical payments per claim decreased 5% in 2020/2021, following a rapid increase the previous year.

Both the increase in indemnity benefits and decrease in medical payments per claim in 2020/2021 likely reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on non-COVID-19 claims, according to WCRI.

Ramona Tanabe, WCRI executive vice president, said for claims at 12 months of experience, the average number of weeks of temporary disability increased about one week in 2020/2021, which she said may reflect economic conditions related to the pandemic. She said WCRI observed similar results in several states.

The study, Monitoring Trends in the New York Workers’ Compensation System, provides a look at how the pandemic impacted non-COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims in the early months of the pandemic. According to the research, the factors related to the pandemic that likely affected claims include the temporary suspension of non-emergency surgeries and the avoidance of certain types of medical care during the early part of the pandemic.

Additionally, prescription drug prices and utilization continued to decrease in 2020/2021, including the average prescription payment per claim and the percentage of claims with prescriptions. WCRI said these decreases likely reflect several factors, including efforts to address unnecessary opioid use, and, more recently, the drug formulary, which became effective for new prescriptions in December 2019.

Topics New York Claims Workers' Compensation Talent COVID-19