Claims Rise Only Partly Behind Drug Spend Jump

Total workers’ comp pharmacy spend in 2023 was between $2.85 billion and $3.1 billion, with a best guess estimate of $3 billion, according to CompPharma’s annual review.
The small increase from 2022 is significantly lower than other estimates, but extensive analysis supports it, the review stated.
“Notably, this is the first year in recent memory that we have seen an increase in overall spend, albeit a very small one,” the report stated. “No doubt COVID affected spend in 2020 and 2021 thus we cannot confidently attribute changes to other factors.”
Among the top takeaways in the report was that the overall perception of the PBM industry remains largely unchanged from last year.
The industry report examines recent spending and clinical management trends in pharmacy within the workers’ compensation industry.
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More than 30 former uranium mine workers, veterans, and downwinders suffering from radiation-related illnesses traveled to Washington, D.C., to push for the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
The group includes elderly tribal members from the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo, Acoma-Pueblo, and Hopi tribes who traveled for 36 hours by bus to lobby for the act’s passage.
The Navajo Nation Washington Office has been at the forefront of advocating for the extension and expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
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Insurance pricing startup Akur8 said it will work with the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation (LWCC) to develop their predictive modeling framework and drive high-quality underwriting insights.
Akur8 said it serves more than 250 customers across more than 40 countries, including AXA, Generali, Munich Re, MAPFRE, HDI, Tokio Marine, and MS&AD.
Actuaries use Akur8 daily to build pricing models and reserving projections across all lines of business, the insurtech said.
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