When the price of physician services increases relative to group health rates, injured workers report fewer problems getting the care they want but no significant improvement in physical function or speedier return to work, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute.

WCRI used data taken from interviews with injured workers in 14 states and claims data from 30 states to measure the impact of medical price changes, relative to prices paid by group health.

In areas where workers’ comp paid less than group health, WCRI found increasing the price to approximately the group health rate led to a small increase in the duration of temporary disability, but little changes in measures of access to care, recovery of physical functioning and speed of return to work.

In areas where workers’ comp already paid more than group health, price increases led to fewer concerns about access to care, faster time to non-emergency visits with physicians, and more care provided to injured workers, but little change in measures of recovery of physical functioning, speed of return to work and duration of temporary disability.

The report, written by researchers Bogdan Savych and Olesya Fomenko, said the findings guide policymakers on what happens when medical prices increase. The impact of price increases varied according to whether prices to begin with were lower than group health or about the same.

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