title: Financial incentives of experience rating in workers' compensation: new evidence from a program change in Ontario, Canada.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the incentive for primary and secondary prevention associated with experience rating in a retrospective workers' compensation program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Panel data on 21,558 firms from 1998 to 2007 were used to estimate the relationship between the degree of experience rating and seven measures of workplace occupational health and safety outcomes. We focused on the impact of a policy change in 2004 in which the degree of experience rating was substantially increased for all firms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 2004 increase in experience rating was associated with a reduction in the total, lost-time, no-lost-time, benefit days, permanent impairment, musculoskeletal disorder, and acute trauma claim rates. These observed changes follow secular trends.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The association of experience rating with some claim outcomes and not others in some time periods suggests that firms may focus on claims and cost management practices.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. etompa@iwh.on.ca
authors.forename: Emile
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tompa
authors.forename: Sheilah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hogg-Johnson
authors.forename: Benjamin C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Amick
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Enqing
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Cam
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mustard
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Robson
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saunders
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018803:Models, Economic; D009042:Motivation; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000191:economics*; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000191:economics*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055502:Secondary Prevention / Q000191:economics*; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data