Preview Copy: Sleep Disorder & Sexual Dysfunction Testing In California WC
CWCI recently completed its fourth annual California workers’ compensation reform monitoring series with a study that confirmed and quantified recent growth in medical payments and explored reasons for the observed increase ("Analysis of California WC Reforms Part 4: Changes in Medical Payments, AY 2002 to 2007 Claims Experience," June 2009; http://www.cwci.org/research.html).
During the peer-review process, several CWCI Claims and Medical Care Committee members suggested possible reasons for the increase in medical utilization and associated cost — including the growing use of diagnostic tests for assessing sleep disorders and sexual dysfunction. To shed more light on the issue, the Institute compiled a special, limited ICIS submission of bill review data from January 2002 through the third quarter of 2008 and analyzed the data to determine how prevalent these tests have become and to assess their impact on California workers’ compensation medical costs.
Preliminary results of that analysis are presented in the attached CWCI Research Spotlight Report. Please note: this is a confidential preview draft of the report, as the findings may undergo significant modification before the report is finalized, so the authors ask that they not be distributed or discussed until additional validation is completed. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact CWCI Research Director Alex Swedlow (aswedlow@cwci.org
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