For Immediate Release

Health Care Foundation Awards Nearly $3 Million to Improve Workers' Compensation Medical Care Systems

Princeton, NJ, November 7, 1996-- To address quality and the high cost of medical care in the worker's compensation system, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded projects in 10 sites totaling nearly $3 million under the Workers' Compensation Health Initiative. The initiative is designed to stimulate the development of innovations in the delivery and financing of the medical care component of workers' compensation programs.
"The initiative has struck a real chord in the workers' compensation field based on the number, quality and diversity of both applicants and grantees," commented program director Jay Himmelstein, MD, MPH, Assistant Chancellor for Health Policy at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. "Everybody--and by that I mean state government agencies, employers, labor unions, insurers, health care providers, and others in the field--seems to be very interested in undertaking new initiatives. They want to make sure that the rate of workers' comp medical cost increases continues to decline without forsaking quality of care. We expect that the results of these projects will point the way toward future regulatory and market reforms.
Recently, workers' compensation premiums have been to stabilize and even decline in a few states. Much of the leveling off is attributed to major reform measures implemented since 1992. The National Council on Compensation Insurance estimates these reforms have already saved more than $1.2 billion nationwide. The exact, long-term impact of these reforms is unknown, however.
"The recent crisis in workers' compensation prompted a flurry of reform and activity on the part of states," said Beth Stevens, senior program officer at the Foundation.  "With all these changes, the Workers' Compensation Health Initiative comes at an ideal point.  Grantees have the breathing space to flesh out the reforms and test their effectiveness, while maintaining a climate that encourages further experimentation.  We hope that the workers' compensation medical care system can continue to evolve along with the changes in the general health care delivery system.  Ideally, some projects will emerge that adequately integrate the two."
Sixty organizations from more than 30 states applied to the program.  The 10 grantees include both demonstration and evaluation projects and represents the spectrum of eligible parties from labor unions and employer-provider coalitions to government agencies and research centers.  According to Allard Dembe, ScD, the initiative's Deputy Director, the funded projects--as well as the projects proposed by the overall applicant pool--fall into three major categories: (1) applying managed care approaches to the medical care component of workers' compensation; (2) implementing/evaluating 24-hour coverage programs; and (3) evaluating the effectiveness of practice parameters.
For a listing of the grantees with project descriptions, see bottom of this page.
A second round of grants and an additional $3 million will be made available under this initiative in 1997.
The Robert Wood Foundation's mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans, and our three program goals address some of the most serious and persistent health and health care problems facing American. Because our health care system is so driven by a concern about how much health care costs, we likewise focus within each of our goals on the costs, affordability, effectiveness and value of health services. Our goals are:

  • to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost;
  • to improve the way services are organized and provided to people with chronic health conditions; and
  • to reduce the personal, social, and economic harm caused by substance abuse--tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.

Grantees (Project listed by Lead Agency)