Abstract
Objective
To determine which work-related injuries are the most frequent and costly.
Design
Secondary analysis of workers' compensation claims data.
Setting
Data were provided by a large, Maryland workers' compensation insurer from 1998 through 2008.
Participants
Not applicable.
Interventions
None.
Main Outcomes Measures
For 45 injury types, the number of claims and compensation amount was calculated for
total compensation and for medical and indemnity compensation separately.
Results
Back and knee injuries were the most frequently occurring single injury types, whereas
heart attack and occupational disease were the most expensive in terms of mean compensation.
When taking into account both the frequency and cost of injury (mean cost × number
occurrences), back, knee, and shoulder injuries were the most expensive single injury
types.
Conclusions
Successful prevention and management of back, knee, and shoulder injuries could lead
to a substantial reduction in the burden associated with work-related injuries.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), FROI (first report of injury), ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision), IWIF (Injured Workers' Insurance Fund)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 30, 2014
Footnotes
Supported by the Injury Workers' Insurance Fund of Maryland.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has conferred or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
