Efforts to cut workers' compensation system costs through managed care and other initiatives have slowed nationwide, and two states have dropped managed care mandates, a research organization reported.
The findings were released by the non-profit Workers' Compensation Research Institute in Cambridge, Mass. in its seventh edition of "Managed Care and Medical Cost Containment in Workers' Compensation: A National Inventory, 2001-2002."
According to the report's lead author, Ramona Tanabe, states are focusing on evaluating the effects of past medical cost containment moves "before moving forward with a new round of activities."
She said there is also more interest in studying the impact that medical cost containment initiatives have on "the quality of care received by injured workers.
