March 28, 2024
California workers’ compensation costs rise
OAKLAND - California employers’ workers’ compensation insurance premiums jumped by $2 billion in 2014 but payments to workers for job-related injuries and illnesses remained static, while medical costs declined, according to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau.

The WCIRB’s new report indicates that those changes are having an effect as expenses, which include insurers’ overhead as well as medical and cash payouts, have sharply declined vis-a-vis premium income.

Those expenses reached 122 percent of premium income in 2011, but with the 2012 reforms in place, they have since declined to 104 percent, with “losses,” mostly medical payments and cash outlays, dropping from 74 percent in 2011 to 68 percent in 2014.

The WCIRB’s data indicate that employer-paid premiums were $16.3 billion in 2014, up from $14.3 billion in 2013, due mostly to job gains as the state’s economy recovered from recession.

Medical costs dropped from $5.2 billion to $5 billion and cash payments to disabled workers remained flat at $3.4 billion. Those numbers don’t include costs borne by employers, mostly large businesses and governments, which “self-insure” for workers’ compensation rather than purchase coverage from insurers.

In a side note, the WCIRB said payments to attorneys who represent workers in their benefit claims dropped from $456 million to $404 million.

Nationwide surveys have shown that California employers’ costs for workers’ compensation are the nation’s highest as a percentage of payroll. (Sacramento Bee)
Story Date: July 5, 2015
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