Medical claims paid by workers' compensation insurance among US Medicare beneficiaries, 1999–2016

Abstract

Background: Workers' compensation claims among Medicare beneficiaries have not been described previously. To examine the healthcare burden of work-related injury and illness among Medicare beneficiaries, we assessed the characteristics, healthcare utilization, and financial costs among Medicare beneficiaries with claims for which workers' compensation was the primary payer. Methods: We extracted final action fee-for-service Medicare claims from 1999 to 2016 where workers' compensation had primary responsibility for claim payment and beneficiary, claim type, diagnoses, and cost information from these claims. Results: During 1999–2016, workers' compensation was the primary payer for 2,010,200 claims among 330,491 Medicare beneficiaries, and 58.7% of these beneficiaries had more than one claim. Carrier claims submitted by noninstitutional providers constituted the majority (94.5%) of claims. Diagnosis codes indicated 19.4% of claims were related to diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue and 12.9% were related to disease of the circulatory system. Workers' compensation insurance paid $880.4 million for these claims while Medicare paid $269.7 million and beneficiaries paid $37.4 million. Conclusions: Workers' compensation paid 74% of the total amount to providers for these work-related medical claims among Medicare beneficiaries. Claim diagnoses were similar to those of all workers' compensation claims in the United States. Describing these work-related claims helps identify the healthcare burden due to occupational injury and illness among Medicare beneficiaries resulting from employment and identifies a need for more comprehensive collection and surveillance of work-related medical claims.