Employers want to know how STD and WC lost-time claims compare. IBI mined its rich benchmarking database to investigate. When we limit WC and STD claims to similar low-back cases, we find that the mean and median lost work time for such STD conditions are longer than for similar WC claims.
This limited analysis raises some interesting questions. To what degree are durations shorter in workers’ compensation for similar low-back injuries because of more active case management and a return-to-work focus? At the same time, there is no doubt that “long-tail” workers’compensation claims represent a significant challenge to claims management and to integration.