Compensation Claim Duration Research Articles

Association of worker characteristics and early reimbursement for physical therapy, chiropractic and opioid prescriptions with workers’ compensation claim duration, for cases of acute low back pain: an observational cohort study

ObjectiveTo assess the association between early reimbursement for physiotherapy, chiropractic and opioid prescriptions for acute low back pain (LBP) with disability claim duration.DesignObservational cohort study.Setting and participantsFrom a random sample...

0182 Predictors of Workers’ Compensation Claim Duration among Workers Disabled Due to Low Back Pain

ObjectivesLow back pain (LBP) is a common complaint among workers receiving Workers’ Compensation wage replacement benefits. We used the administrative data from the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)...

Implications of Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injections After Lumbar Surgery

Assess the relationship between performing lumbar epidural steroid injections (ESIs) after lumbar surgery and workers' compensation claim duration and cost. A multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the association between performing ESI after the first lumbar surgery in 11,394 lost time injury claims filed from 1999 to 2002 followed for 7 years postinjury. Odds ratio of costs more than $100,000 is 6.49 (95% confidence interval: 4.30 to 9.81) for ever having lumbar ESI after the first lumbar surgery, compared with no spinal procedures, controlling for sex, age, attorney involvement, opioid use, other spinal procedures, and claim duration. Odds ratio of having claim duration longer than 1000 days was 14.73 (95% confidence interval: 7.01 to 30.95). Lumbar ESI after the first lumbar surgery was associated with high cost and longer claim duration.

Privatizing public services and strategic behavior: The impact of incentives to reduce workers' compensation claim duration

During the 1990s, the state of Ohio contracted out Workers' Compensation (WC) case management, incorporating a large bonus payment intended to reward reduced claim duration. The bonus is essentially a decreasing function of average days away from work, excluding claims longer than 15 months. In response, duration is predicted to decrease for claims with moderate injuries and increase for some severe claims so that claimants will miss more than 15 months of work and be excluded from the calculation. I show that contractors increased duration for severe claims but find no evidence that contractors successfully reduced duration for moderate claims. However, contractors received large bonus payments. This is likely because the financial reward to merely excluding a small share of severe claims from the calculation of the bonus payment is large enough to enable TCMs to receive the full bonus. These contractor responses are inconsistent with state intentions, suggesting public entities should anticipate strategic behavior when crafting performance-based incentives.

Unions and the Duration of Workers' Compensation Claims

This paper examines the effect of union status on workers’ compensation claim duration in Canada. I find that unionized workers have shorter claims than nonunionized workers and that relatively little of this difference can be attributed to differences in worker or job characteristics. I interpret this as being consistent with a strong union effect that reduces union member's claim duration. Plausible explanations for this finding and directions for future research are also discussed.

The Effects of Worker Heterogeneity on Duration Dependence: Low-Back Claims in Workers Compensation

We estimate models of workers compensation claim duration for a sample of Canadian workers with serious low-back injuries. The models extend recent duration research by allowing worker characteristics to affect duration dependence through the nonlocation parameters of the duration distribution. We compare results for modified Weibull models and piecewise-constant hazard rate models of duration dependence. The results show that workers' responses to elapsed claim duration vary significantly with their characteristics and with economic incentives to return to work. Further, allowing for heterogeneity in duration dependence effects can dramatically change the coefficient estimates of the variables that determine the location parameter of the duration distribution.

On the Classification and Duration of Compensation Claims in the Mining Industry

The actuarial aspects of the liability of the employer towards his employees in respect of industrial accidents and diseases have not been discussed frequently at the Institute, and the comparatively small number of contributions to the Journal on this subject is doubtless to be attributed, in no small measure, to the difficulty of obtaining access to any considerable body of data bearing more particularly upon the duration of compensation claims. Some three or four Tears ago the author was asked to investigate the experience of a Colliery Owners' Mutual Indemnity Fund, and although the investigation deals with a single industry and relates to a period somewhat remote, it is hoped that, in so far as it may throw some light upon a subject regarding which but little information has as yet become available, the following account of the methods followed, and the results obtained, may nevertheless be of interest and possibly of some value. The author desires to express his indebtedness to the directors of the fund, which for certain reasons it is not desired to name, and which is hereafter referred to as “the Fund,” for their courteous permission to utilize in this manner information obtained in his professional capacity.