The National Councilon Compensation Insurance (NCCI) has released the latestversion of its annual look at prescription drug prices and workers'compensation. The “WorkersCompensation Prescription Drug Study: 2011 Update” offersinformation on the countrywide share of workers' compensationmedical costs due to prescription drugs and the impact of price andutilization changes on those costs.

Key findings from the 2011 report include:

• Medical costs per claim average more than $6,000 and soar tonearly $25,000 for lost-time claims
• The indicated prescription share of total medical is 19percent, slightly higher than the estimate given in the 2010update
• OxyContin was the most prescribed workers' compensation drug inservice year 2009. Lidoderm was second.
• Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen dropped from the top workers'compensation drug in service year 2008 to number three in serviceyear 2009
• Per-claim prescription costs grew by 12 percent in service year2009
• Recent overall cost increases are driven more by utilizationincreases than by price increases.

Physician dispensing continues to be a topic of national debate,with the practice increasing in almost every state. A previous NCCIstudy found that the share of workers' compensation prescriptioncosts associated with physician dispensing, which had been verystable, increased dramatically in service year 2008 and again inservice year 2009. In this latest report, NCCI found that of thelocations studied, 30 states (including Washington, D.C.), havephysician-dispensed shares over 15.5 percent, seven states havephysician-dispensed shares between 10.5 and 15.5 percent, and ninestates have physician-dispensed shares below 10.5 percent.

The data used in the study is for medical services providedbetween 1996 and 2009 on both lost-time and medical-only claimsthat occurred between 1994 and 2009, evaluated as of July 1,2010.