Missouri Insurance Department Expects Lower Workers’ Comp Insurance Rates

Missouri insurance regulators say employers in that state should see lower workers’ compensation insurance rates for the third straight year in 2017.

The Missouri Department of Insurance says the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) has proposed an overall decrease of 3.7 percent for 2017 workers’ compensation loss costs. After reviewing the NCCI’s loss costs filing, the department will recommend its own loss costs.

Insurers and self-insurers use loss costs to establish workers’ compensation rates for Missouri employers. According to the NCCI, claims from injuries where there is lost time from work, continue to decline. Medical inflation continues to grow, but is increasing at a slower pace than the decline in lost-time claims, contributing to this years’ decrease.

Of Missouri’s 336 active carriers, 220 carriers filed rate decreases in 2016 with an average decrease of 2.9 percent.

NCCI’s proposed change in loss costs for Missouri by industry group:

Workers’ compensation claims are regulated by the Division of Workers’ Compensation in the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and rates are reviewed by the Department of Insurance.