On April 6, the governing committee of the California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau voted unanimously to allow the bureau to submit a mid-year pure premium rate reduction filing to the state Department of Insurance.
The committee’s decision was based on the WCIRB actuarial committee’s analysis of recent insurer loss and loss adjustment experience as of late December. Cumulative trauma claims, the committee noted, continued to increase—especially in the Los Angeles area.
The actuarial committee pointed out that allocated loss adjustment expense in the post-workers’ compensation reform environment came out higher than expected, and that the number of liens surged in 2015.
The filing recommends a July 1 average advisory pure premium rate of $2.30 per $100 of payroll. This is 10.4% lower than the corresponding industry average filed pure premium rate of $2.57 as of January 1. It is also 5.0% less than the average approved by the commissioner earlier this year, which was a pure premium rate of $2.42.
The WCIRB hopes to submit its filing to the CDI by April 11.
