The Delaware Department of Labor (DDL) announced that hundreds of new providers have chosen to start participating in the state’s workers’ comp system, following an increase in state fee schedule rates for key services.

Senate Bill 164 increased reimbursement for Evaluation and Management (E/M) services, which are among the most common services providers render to injured workers. The bill addressed the “critical need” to raise E/M rates in Delaware, specifically citing that those rates were lower than the Medicare rates for the same services.

The announcement comes as Delaware employers’ workers’ comp rates are set to decrease.

Delaware is demonstrating that it’s possible to control costs for employers while simultaneously making workers’ comp more financially sustainable for medical practices, an example from which states like California desperately need to learn.

DE Senate Bill 164 Raises E/M Rates

Effective January 31, 2026, SB 164 raises the reimbursement rates for workers’ comp E/M services to improve access to care for injured workers.

As the bill synopsis bluntly puts it (emphasis ours):

“...the State of Delaware is in critical need of physicians to accept and treat worker compensation patients.”

In a state press release, primary sponsor Jack Walsh touted the quick results, describing “providers stepping up to serve Delaware’s workers and strengthen the system that protects them” as “gratifying.”

Data from a Workers’ Compensation Research Institute report, Designing Workers’ Compensation Medical Fee Schedules, underscores the need to take action to make workers’ comp financially sustainable for Delaware providers, with the state ranking 15th from the bottom among fee-schedule states.

DE Math vs CA Math

In October, Delaware’s Insurance Commissioner, Trinidad Navarro, announced that employers’ rates for workers’ comp coverage would fall for the ninth consecutive year.

This is in line with a nationwide trend of decreasing rates, as workers’ comp remains the most profitable line of insurance and insurers continue to reap record profits from this overperforming sector.

Clearly, Delaware has chosen to treat the extraordinary profitability of comp as an opportunity to compensate doctors better and improve access to care. Contrast this with California, where Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara instituted a rate increase for employers in September.

Fee schedule rates in California are even lower than those in Delaware, a problem compounded by rampant, effectively unregulated Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) driving E/M reimbursement down to Medicare levels (and often lower).  

As PPOs divert employers’ premium dollars away from medical practices, California’s injured workers also face a “critical need” for providers to participate in the system. Unfortunately, California lacks the leadership on display in Delaware.

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