TY - JOUR
T1 - The Relationship of the Amount of Physical Therapy to Time Lost from Work and Costs in the Workers' Compensation System
AU - Leung, Nina
AU - Tao, Xuguang Grant
AU - Bernacki, Edward J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Physical therapy (PT) is perceived as a cost driver in the US workers' compensation system. We conducted a 5-year (2013 to 2017) retrospective analysis utilizing 192,197 claims from a large Texas based workers' compensation insurance company to describe the relationship between the amount of physical therapy delivered and workers' compensation costs and lost-time. Closed, indemnity claims with 15 or more PT visits were six times more likely (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.50, 86.58) to result in high medical costs (>$7000, excluding PT costs) and were four times more likely (95% CI: 3.77, 4.42) to result in more than or equal to 6 months of lost-time, when controlling for confounders. When the number of PT visits more than or equal to 15 visits for a lost time claim, this level of PT exceeds all other predictors (opioid use, comorbidities, legal involvement, surgery, etc) of medical cost and extended time out from work.
AB - Physical therapy (PT) is perceived as a cost driver in the US workers' compensation system. We conducted a 5-year (2013 to 2017) retrospective analysis utilizing 192,197 claims from a large Texas based workers' compensation insurance company to describe the relationship between the amount of physical therapy delivered and workers' compensation costs and lost-time. Closed, indemnity claims with 15 or more PT visits were six times more likely (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.50, 86.58) to result in high medical costs (>$7000, excluding PT costs) and were four times more likely (95% CI: 3.77, 4.42) to result in more than or equal to 6 months of lost-time, when controlling for confounders. When the number of PT visits more than or equal to 15 visits for a lost time claim, this level of PT exceeds all other predictors (opioid use, comorbidities, legal involvement, surgery, etc) of medical cost and extended time out from work.
KW - claim management
KW - occupational injury
KW - physical therapy
KW - workers' compensation
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U2 - 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001630
DO - 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001630
M3 - Article
C2 - 31090676
AN - SCOPUS:85070652478
SN - 1076-2752
VL - 61
SP - 635
EP - 640
JO - Journal of occupational and environmental medicine
JF - Journal of occupational and environmental medicine
IS - 8
ER -