OIR Approves Workers Compensation Rate Reduction
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has issued an order approving an overall rate reduction of 4.7% in the National Council on Compensation Insurance’s (NCCI’s) recent workers’ compensation insurance rate filing. NCCI originally filed for an overall rate reduction of 1.9%. However, upon review, the OIR disapproved the filing as initially filed and stated that it would approve the filing with certain revisions resulting in an overall decrease of 5.1%. NCCI responded by asking the OIR to evaluate supplemental information relating to its findings. The OIR considered this information and ultimately maintained its earlier position, with the exception that it agreed to allow a profit and contingency factor of 2.75% instead of 2.5%. The resulting rate reduction of 4.7% therefore is slightly less than the OIR originally suggested, but a greater reduction than initially filed by NCCI.
Workers’ compensation rates have gone down by about 60% in Florida since the legislature addressed concerns in the market in 2003. However, the industry is closely monitoring cases currently pending before the Florida Supreme Court that could threaten the workers’ compensation system.