Insurer-paid benefits

Workers' compensation benefits

Workers’ compensation indemnity benefits are cash benefits paid to injured workers or their beneficiaries. These indemnity benefits are paid by insurers from employers’ workers’ compensation premiums. Indemnity benefits include benefits for temporary disability (time loss), permanent partial disability (PPD), permanent total disability (PTD), and death. The eligibility criteria and the benefit rates at which insurers pay these benefits are set in statute and administrative rule. In the case of death from work-related causes, indemnity benefits are paid to survivors. Indemnity benefits also include vocational assistance benefits paid on behalf of severely disabled workers to employers to get them back to work. Finally, insurers and workers may negotiate settlements that substitute for statutory indemnity benefits. Claim disposition agreements (CDA) and disputed claim settlements (DCS) are negotiated amounts paid directly to the worker.

The following table show the indemnity, medical, and total benefits paid.

Total workers' compensation benefits paid ($ millions)

Note: In this table, total benefits paid are indemnity benefits plus medical benefits for accepted and denied disabling and nondisabling claims. Most of this is paid by insurers from premium; a small amount is reimbursed from the Workers' Benefit Fund. The total paid does not include cost-of-living adjustments from the Retroactive Program or most payments under the Re-employment Assistance Program. Some indemnity data are estimated. Medical benefits paid are extrapolated from reported paid bills made by large insurers. Historical data are subject to small changes.

Workers' compensation indemnity benefits paid by type ($ millions)

Most indemnity payments are paid for accepted disabling claims. The following table shows the amounts paid for accepted disabling claims by type of benefit.

More details about each type available in the following subsections:

• Temporary disability
  
• Permanent Partial Disability
• Settlements
• Permanent Total Disability and Death Benefits
• Vocational assistance