Hawaii Files for 11.6 Percent Workers’ Comp Decrease

Hawaii’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ (DCCA) Insurance Division announced that the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) filed a request for a decrease of 11.6 percent in the workers’ compensation loss costs. The filing would affect premiums beginning Jan. 1, 2009.

The reduction is based on a decrease in the number of claims filed in 2006 (the last year complete data is available). In the past three years the the state’s insurance commissioner approved decreases of 19.3 percent, 18.2 percent and 12.3 percent in loss costs. This latest reduction brings the total decrease in workers’ compensation loss costs to 61.4 percent in the past four years.

“These lower rates show that the great efforts of Hawaii’s employers and our employees have been effective in providing a safer work place for our workforce,” stated Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt, noting it’s one of the largest declines in the nation. “The lower workers’ compensation loss cost rates will help Hawaii employers offset some of the other rising costs they are facing.”

DCCA said the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health division worked with employers and labor to create safer and healthier workplaces.

“The DLIR has made marked improvements in streamlining and expediting the hearing process,” Schmidt said. “Claims are continuing to be resolved in a timely manner. However, we still need to work with the Legislature to reduce the adversarial nature of the system and improve the quality of care to our injured workers so that they can return to work promptly without the financial impact associated with an unnecessary prolonged absence from work.”

If the filing is approved, insurance companies can choose to adopt NCCI’s loss costs.