As we discussed in our look at the top-performing Third-Party Administrators (TPAs), TPAs are a critical component of workers' comp systems in most states. When a TPA upholds its legal obligations and demonstrates technical proficiency, injured workers and the providers who treat them benefit.

On the other side of the coin, TPAs that are consistently non-compliant, seemingly incompetent, and just plain bad at their jobs make it harder for providers to treat injured workers, ultimately hurting access to care.

Today, we look at the five worst-performing TPAs as measured by our Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) grading system.

The TPAs below consistently botch their payment responses to providers' e-bills. Each failure forces providers to fall back on phone calls, faxes, and manual resubmissions to get paid: exactly the friction e-billing was designed to eliminate.

Given the time and administrative resources required to treat injured workers, providers struggle to manage the added payment friction these worst-performing TPAs create.

Employers have a choice: They can choose a top-performing TPA or settle for a bottom-performing one and pass the consequences on to the providers willing to treat their injured workers.