WHAT’S TRENDING IN 2021 IN WC?

Urging businesses to be aware as the pandemic continues on into 2021, Senior VP of Worldwide Facilities’ workers’ compensation unit Todd Polluck, has described the top three workers’ compensation trends that have emerged from industry sources including telehealth, mega claims, and COVID-19.

Telehealth claims lines which found themselves around 0.17% in March 2019 in the U.S. have increased to 4,347% in 2020, accordingly to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.  It has become much more common to see telehealth services listed on insurance claims as the benefits include reduced COVID exposure versus an in-person MD visit as well as reduced wait times to speak with a physician. At this time, statutory and regulatory requirements related to telemedicine services continue to vary state to state thus impacting the potential future use of telemedicine in workers’ compensation.

Very serious, large scale claims that often include $3 million+ in losses, or “mega claims,” have been on the rise over the past few years with the construction industry being the hardest hit followed by office/clerical and then all other industries combined. It is expected that 2021 will see an increase in both the occurrence and severity of workers’ compensation loses, including mega claims due to social inflation.

Finally, the full impact of COVID-19 is still slowly unfolding at this time.  So many unanswered questions exist as to whether or not COVID compensability measures will become permanent or possibly expand to include other conditions, how to measure risk amidst a pandemic, and how to ensure employee safety and evaluate possible risks with so many people working remotely. 

Source: Pollock, Todd.  “Three Key 2021 Workers’ Compensation Trends to Watch.” NU Property and Casualty360, January 18, 2021, https://www.propertycasualty360.com/2021/01/18/3-key-2021-workers-comp-trends-to-watch/. Accessed 4 February 2021.