August 22, 2009
Did you know...?
Report Cards show the Best and Worst in Work Comp Outcomes
Since 1986, industry observers have turned to a biennial benchmark report by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services to see how the various state workers' compensation programs stack up against each other in terms of cost.
The institute last month
released its latest “State Report Cards for Workers' Comp,” the first update
since 2004. Links to information from the report cards appears at the end
of this article.
New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming got “F” grades. Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama and Virginia got “As.”
Unlike Oregon's benchmark report, which compares states by the amount employers
must spend on premiums, the institute's report card measures each state
according to injured worker outcomes.
Five factors are measured: The incidence of lost-time claims in each state,
the percentage of work injuries that required time off from work, the median
length of disability following a work-injury claim, the percentage of injuries
that resulted in work absences lasting 30 days or longer, and the average
amount of time spent recovering from low back strains.
The institute, a private company based in Encinitas, Calif., says it will
hereafter update the report card rankings annually. The data is derived from
occupational injury reports to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration..
The data has its limits. Because
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics takes some time to compile occupational
injury reports into usable tables, each state's outcome was measured using 2007
data, meaning the comparisons are not current. Also, no data was available for
eight states that do not participate in the government's Survey of Occupational
Injuries and Illnesses program: Idaho, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Mississippi.
In addition to issuing letter grade report cards, the institute ranked states
by “tiers” based on whether they received good grades and were improving, or
poor grades and getting worse. Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Utah and Virginia were ranked as “Tier I” states, meaning they had grades of
“B+” or better, and a trend going up or level.
Eight states fell into the opposite category — Tier VI — which means they had
an average grade of “D-“ or worse, and a trend going down or level. The worst
performers for the years 2000-2006 were Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas and Wyoming.
Oregon didn't fare so well in the Work Loss Data Institute's report card,
either. It got a “D,” along with California, Texas, South Carolina, Maryland, Kentucky and Tennessee. Oregon consistently ranks as one of the low-cost states
in the nation in its own biennial premium costs reports.
The Work Loss Data Institute posted a map showing how each state fared in its
report card system online, but the full report is available only to customers
willing to pay $250 for a copy.
A map showing each state's grade
can be found here: http://www.odg-disability.com/pr_src2009_us.htm.
A map showing the “tier rankings,” which factor in whether the state's outcomes
are improving or growing worse, is here: http://www.odg-disability.com/pr_srctiers2009_us.htm.
A description of the institute's methodology is here: http://www.odg-disability.com/pr_src_methods2009.htm.
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