Long COVID cases accounted for 82.1% of the treatment payments on COVID claims and 73.7% of all COVID-19 claim payments in California’s workers’ compensation system, according to a study.

The study from the California Workers’ Compensation Institute shows one-in-21 California workers’ comp COVID claims from accident years 2020 to 2022 involved medical treatment beyond 90 days from the injury date.

While the number of new COVID claims in California workers’ comp has wound down, the new CWCI study comes amid growing concern about a potential COVID surge after the CDC adopted new guidelines that may make it more difficult to obtain COVID-19 vaccines.

The study is based on a review of 126,397 insured and self-insured COVID-19 claims found that most were relatively inexpensive due to little to no medical intervention (only 14.6% involved medical treatment), but 4.7% were Long COVID claims that involved long-term medical conditions that impeded or prevented the claimants from returning to their jobs and resulted in significant costs, according to the CWCI study.

Medical payments for the COVID claims in the study sample totaled $128.4 million, with Long COVID claims accounting for $105.5 million, while total payments on the COVID claims, including medical treatment, indemnity costs, and expenses, were $350.6 million, with Long COVID claims consuming $258.3 million.

Overall, average medical payments were 105 times higher on Long COVID cases than on shorter duration COVID claims, and average indemnity payments were 37 times higher.

The top 10 diagnostic categories for Long COVID included: respiratory (17.8%); circulatory (9.0%); nervous (8.7%); connective, soft tissue and bone disorders (5.2%); endocrine systems (4.9%); as well as mental health (4.4%), and digestive conditions (3.4%).

CWCI members and subscribers can go to the institute’s website to access the report under the Research tab on the home page, others can purchase a copy.

Topics
California
COVID-19