Paduda: Value, Community Penetration Drive Prices| Staff Compensation Information

By Last updated May 23, 2021

By Joe Paduda

Friday, May 21, 2021 | 0

I came to this conclusion after reviewing WCRI’s latest research on medical pricing for professional compensation services.

Joe Paduda

Sure, utilization is a very important driver, but the biggest difference in medical costs between states is price.

Rebecca Yang and Olesya Fomenko have outdone themselves with this edition, cementing their reputation as two of the most knowledgeable experts in the country on medical expenses in labor compensation.

Kudos to the Workers Compensation Research Institute for including data from the first half of 2020 in the report. The fine folks in Boston have done a great job making data collection and analysis faster enough that we have data that is less than a year old. This is indeed helpful for anyone trying to understand what is happening and why and what to do about it.

Snack bars:

Wisconsin’s professional services are very expensive.
While prices paid in non-tariff states have generally increased more than in tariff states, New Jersey is an exception. WCRI found that New Jersey saw a fairly significant increase in network penetration during the study period. I would suggest that the state’s employer-directing laws directly contributed to lower price increases.
Network participation is very different. In general, the more the network penetration increases, the smaller the increase in the prices paid. However, in some cases (Pennsylvania) this is not the case.
Finally, on page 39, you will find a very useful table showing the network penetration rates for each of the 36 conditions examined.

what does that mean to you?

This is extremely useful information as there are many nuggets buried in the 190-page report. If you are not a member of the WCRI, join now.

Joseph Paduda is a co-owner of CompPharma, a consulting firm focused on improving pharmacy programs in employee compensation. This column is republished from his Managed Care Matters blog with his permission.