States with percent-of-charge-based fees or no fee schedules had higher and faster-growing hospital outpatient department payment rates, WorkersCompensation.com reports.
The Workers Compensation Research Institute compared payments for common hospital outpatient surgeries in workers' compensation cases across 36 states.
What you should know:
1. Hospital payments per surgical episode in states with percent-of-charge-based fees were 67 percent to 212 percent higher than in states with fixed-amount fees in 2017.
2. Payments in states without fee schedules were 62 percent to 148 percent higher.
3. Outpatient payments also grew faster in states with percent-of-charge-based fees or in states without fee schedules.