CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 89, No. 7 July 2024 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions...
Havanis v. Calif. Dept. of Transportation (Board Panel Decision) By Hon. Colleen Casey, Former Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board I. Medical apportionment is not the...
By Robert G. Rassp, author of The Lawyer’s Guide to the AMA Guides and California Workers’ Compensation (LexisNexis) Disclaimer: The material and any opinions contained in this treatise are...
Oakland, CA – Private self-insured claim volume in the California workers' compensation system fell 9.5% in 2023, producing the biggest year-to-year decline in private self-insured claim frequency...
By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board No matter the source of your media consumption, it seems that the topic...
Oakland, CA – Part I of a new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) research series on low-volume/high-cost drugs used to treat injured workers in California spotlights a handful of Anti-Inflammatory and Anticonvulsant medications that account for a relatively small share of the prescriptions within their therapeutic drug groups, but that have become significant cost drivers by consuming a disproportionately large share of the payments.
CWCI’s analysis of Anti-Inflammatory and Anticonvulsant drugs used in California workers’ compensation is the first of a three-part series that uses data from the Institute’s Prescription Drug Application to track changes in the distribution of California workers’ compensation prescriptions and prescription payments over the past decade, and to identify medications with high average reimbursements that have an outsized impact on the total payments within their drug group. The authors of the study note the changes in the average amounts paid per prescription for each of the highlighted drugs over the 10-year study period (service years 2012 through 2021), as well as changes in the percent of the prescriptions dispensed as a brand rather than a generic drug, and review factors that contribute to the high cost of the medications. Among the key findings for the Anti-Inflammatory and Anticonvulsant drugs:
CWCI has published the first part of its study in a Spotlight Report, Cost-Driver Medications in the Top California Workers’ Comp Drug Groups: Part 1, Anti-Inflammatories & Anticonvulsants. Institute members and subscribers can log on to the Institute’s website at www.cwci.org to access the report under in the Research section, others can purchase a copy from the Institute’s online store. CWCI research on low-volume/high-cost medications will continue with Part II in the series, which will focus on medications found in the Dermatological, Opioid, and Antidepressant drug categories, while Part III will highlight low-volume/high-cost Musculoskeletal and Ulcer Drugs.