The cost per claim reflects the fact that the average payment for medical services is among the highest of the states studied, rather than greater utilization of services in terms of number of visits and services provided to injured workers by doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists and hospitals. The average payment per service to hospitals, medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy is significantly higher than in the typical state studied. Payments per service for major and minor surgery in particular are among the highest of the eight states. Chiropractors are involved in substantially fewer claims than is typical among these states and when involved, have lower costs per claim.
Hospitals carry out more diagnostic tests.
The data in the reference work, The Anatomy of Workers' Compensation Medical Costs and Utilization, identifies where workers' compensation medical dollars go and how costs and utilization differ across eight important states. In addition to Georgia, the states analyzed in the WCRI study were California, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas. The study reported that the average claim costs in Georgia is almost 20 percent higher than that cost in the median state in the study. This is primarily because the average payment per medical service in Georgia was among the highest of the eight states examined. The study also noted that the average cost per claim is close to the median of the eight states for lost-time claims of seven days or less in duration.