Financial and non-financial incentives encourage more providers to participate in best practice programs and adopt more of the best practices. We know that implementation of occupational health best practices reduces worker disability, improves worker outcomes, and gets workers back to work as soon as medically possible. L&I has developed a variety of best practice programs to support providers during the workers' treatment. Caring for an ill or injured worker requires the attending provider to consider a variety of additional factors:
- The worker's job role and physical requirements,
- Understanding the role, goals, and limitations of workers' compensation coverage; and
- Engaging with the employer to ensure that modified duty is within the workers' capacity and assists their recovery.
We're paying providers who do the right thing for workers
To support the increase of providers' participation and adoption of occupational health best practices, L&I regularly reviews and updates the financial and non-financial incentives offered to providers and health care organizations.
As part of these updates, L&I is planning a providers' incentives pilot and evaluation beginning in March 2023 and continuing for one year.
The pilots include:
- Financial incentives starting at $35, billed at the worker's first visit with the best practice pilot provider. Financial incentives reflect L&I's periodic assessment of provider's demonstrated best practice activities with workers participating in state-fund claims.
- Non-financial incentives which support providers through health services coordination and incentive reporting.
- Financial and non-financial incentives for providers and health service coordinators participating who assume responsibility for compensable complex claims.
To understand the specific local codes being piloted and the amounts being paid, refer to the Pilot's Special Fee Schedule.
You can learn more about each program by visiting their web pages:
Visit About Our Program to understand the benefits and approach to these pilots.
To understand the specific local codes being piloted and the amounts being paid, refer to the Pilot's Special Fee Schedule.
To see if a specific provider is part of the provider incentives pilots, please check out
State-fund employers
COHE pilot financial incentives are a cost to claim and will appear on your periodic statement if your worker visits a pilot provider. These pilots will be evaluated after twelve months to understand:
- If more providers adopted more best practices, thereby improving worker care,
- If financial projections and impacts were as expected; and
- If there were unintended consequences.
Self-insured employers
The COHE incentive pilot and participating providers are using these best practices with all workers. We encourage participating providers to include self-insured workers in these pilots. For more information, please go to the self-insured employer's website. Please note that SQCP provider incentives will appear as part of MARFS (Chapter 22) and are payable on all claims.
To understand the special local codes being piloted and the amounts being paid, refer to our Pilot's Special Fee Schedule.
Participating Pilot Sites
Centers of Occupational Health & Education
All providers will start off at a low adoption incentive level.
The following providers are participating in the COHE provider incentives pilot:
COHE at UW Valley Medical Center of Puget Sound:
- The Work Clinic
- UW Valley Medical Center Occupational Medicine
COHE Alliance of Western Washington:
- Folweiler Chiropractic
- Multicare Occupational Medicine
- Options Consulting
- Richard Ojima, MD (Occupational Medicine, Olympia)
- Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Urgent Care
- William Marson, DC (Northwest Return to Work)
COHE Community with Providence
- Multicare Occupational Medicine
- Northwest Medical Group
- Providence Occupational Medicine
- The Healthy Worker
If you're an employer/representative, provider, or worker, we'd love to hear from you!
Gathering feedback is part of our evaluation process. Please email us using the contact information listed at the bottom of this web page.
Provider Incentives Frequently Asked Questions
- L&I pioneered best practice pilots with the creation of the COHE program, which has helped reduce long term disability for ill and injured workers.
- Using what we've learned in previous pilots, and guided by research and data, we're ready to pilot additional best practice programs that will continue to reduce worker disability.
- Centers of Occupational Health & Education Provider Incentive Pilot: will begin in April 2023 and continue for 1 calendar year.
- Surgical Quality Care Program: their program is already in operation and the new incentives will be implemented as each clinic transfers from the Ortho-Neuro pilot. The new incentives will be evaluated after one calendar year, but will also be written into MARFS (Chapter 22) with the January 2024 update.
More best practice adoption means better care for workers and better communication with employers:
For COHE pilot participants, please refer to the Providers tab of this section. SQCP provider incentives are part of MARFS (Chapter 22) as of the January 2024 update and all enrolled providers will be participating.
To evaluate if these provider incentives improve care for workers. In addition, we hope that provider incentives encourage more providers to participate in best practice programs and adopt more best practices.
Each of the best practice programs have a different schedule and the incentives pilot aligns with this overall schedule.
The financial incentives are aligned to the specific best practice program for which they were designed.
The COHE incentives pilot is currently underway and no longer accepting new providers.
Please send an email to the contact information listed at the bottom of this web page.