BrickStreet Still No. 1 in West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Market

November 5, 2012

BrickStreet Insurance is still the dominant workers’ compensation insurer in West Virginia, despite competition from more than 200 other companies.

The Legislature created BrickStreet in 2005 to replace what had been a state-run system. It spun off as a private company the following year and had no competition until the state opened the market in 2008.

As of the end of 2011, BrickStreet handled 50 percent of the workers’ comp premiums in the state, according to the state Insurance Commission. BrickStreet collected $250.6 million in premiums and its net income was $47.1 million. The Charleston-based company incurred $102.3 million in losses, according to its annual statement filed on Dec. 31, 2011. .

T.J. Obrokta Jr., BrickStreet’s senior vice president, said Brickstreet has fared better than many thought it would when the company began operations in 2006. “The state gave us a $200 million loan and 10 years to pay it back. We paid it off in 3 1/2 years,” he said.

“The primary thing BrickStreet has done is to reduce the cost of workers’ compensation,” Mountain State Insurance owner Ross Johnson told the Charleston Gazette.

Charleston lawyer James Humphreys said workers’ compensation should be about protecting and supporting injured workers, not about profits for a corporation. “BrickStreet has made an ungodly amount of money,” said Humphreys, who opposed privatizing the insurer when he served in the state Senate.

BrickStreet has expanded into other states. It has an office in Chicago and plans to open another one in Charlotte, N.C. The company is licensed, or has applied to be licensed, in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.