FAIR Health Selected to Help Mississippi Update Its Workers' Compensation Fee Schedule

A New Collaboration between FAIR Health and the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission

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Jan 14, 2019, 06:46 ET

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The State of Mississippi selected FAIR Health to help analyze, revise and update its 2019 workers' compensation fee schedule, FAIR Health announced today. FAIR Health, a national, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information, will work closely with Mississippi to update the ground rules and rate tables for the workers' compensation fee schedule, which includes values for medical, anesthesia, transportation, HCPCS and dental procedures.

The new contract marks the first time FAIR Health will be supporting Mississippi in updating its workers' compensation fee schedule. Mississippi updates the fee schedule every three years, providing interim updates in the second and third years of the cycle. In addition to supporting the 2019 fee schedule development, FAIR Health will assist with interim updates in 2020 and 2021, ensuring that the fee schedule remains current, comprehensive and geographically relevant, thus meeting the needs of injured workers and all stakeholders. The fee schedule will be distributed to providers, administrators and other interested parties by FAIR Health on a website maintained for this purpose.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "We are delighted about this new collaboration, and we look forward to working closely with the State of Mississippi in their efforts to maintain a fee schedule that addresses the state's specific needs. As an independent, neutral organization, we are able to serve states by using our experience working with Medicare fee schedules and our private insurance data to assist states in creating individualized fee schedules that help key stakeholders meet the needs of the injured worker."

FAIR Health is working and in discussions with a number of states to develop or support their workers' compensation fee schedules. For example, FAIR Health has been assisting Georgia and Kentucky for many years to update their fee schedules. Our data are not only the basis for fee schedules in some states, but also serve as a primary data source for private companies that process workers' compensation claims in the absence of a state fee schedule. In addition, FAIR Health data are referenced in statutes, regulations and official memoranda around the country as the designated source of cost information for a variety of other state health-related programs.

About FAIR Health
FAIR Health is a national, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 27 billion claim records contributed by payors and administrators who insure or process claims for private insurance plans covering more than 150 million individuals. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data products—including benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics, episodes of care analytics and market indices—to commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health houses data on Medicare Advantage enrollees in its private claims data repository. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health has earned HITRUST CSF and Service Organization Controls (SOC 2) certifications by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Elisabeth Rosenthal's book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:
Dean Sicoli
Executive Director of Communications and Government Relations
FAIR Health
646-664-1645
[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health