Dinallo: N.Y. Needs Better Workers Comp Data Collection

New York State should centralize its workers’ compensation data in an information bank that could be used to analyze, benchmark and improve the system, Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo says.

The information bank would comprise detailed claim-related costs as well as measurements of quality of and access to care.

That recommendation is one of several made by Dinallo in a report to Gov. Eliot Spitzer called for under the reform package enacted last year.

The report was prepared by the Insurance Department’s Workers’ Compensation Reform Task Force, which met with lawmakers, labor groups and other state agencies about various workers’ compensation issues.

The report, available here, summarizes data and benchmarks for the state’s workers’ compensation system.

Among the other recommendations made by the task force’s report:

— The state should create an independent research division at the
Workers’ Compensation Board which would use the data bank to conduct research for special projects.

— The research division should explore the potential of building a partnership with a university in New York.

Source: New York Insurance Department