2013 Fee Schedule Annual Rate Adjustment

The Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission announced its annual rate adjustment for the Illinois workers' compensation fee schedule. Effective January 1, 2013, the fee schedule rates will increase 1.69%.

Section 8.2(a) of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act provides that, each year, fee schedule rates shall increase or decrease by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index-U (CPI-U) in the previous year.  

The IWCC's announcement includes a chart that shows the adjustment rate for each year since 2006.

The medical fee schedule rates will increase 1.69% in 2013, which is less than half the rate of medical inflation (CPI-M). As the chart below shows, the fee schedule amounts are now running 37% below medical inflation over the life of the fee schedule.

The 37% difference between the IL fee schedule and medical inflation does include HB 1698/PA 97-18's 30% fee schedule reduction effective on September 1, 2011.  The remaining 6.96% is the difference between the rate of medical inflation (CPI-M) and Consumer Price Index-U (CPI-U). 
  
As Glen Boyle reported at the IWCC Medical Fee Advisory Board's December meeting, the 2013 annual fee schedule updates and rates are currently scheduled to complete internal review and quality check by December 21, and the new 2013 rates have an anticipated posting date of December 28, 2012. The annual fee schedule updates are effective on January 1 of each year.