N.D. COMP BOARD ADOPTS 5% RESERVING DISCOUNT:

The board of directors of North Dakota’s monopoly workers’ compensation provider, Workforce Safety and Insurance, voted to adopt a 5 percent discount in calculating the WSI reserve fund. The board also recommended that $250 million be held for unexpected developments in the future.

The reserve fund is the money set aside to cover the cost of all current workers’ compensation claims. The dollars set aside in the reserve fund pay for both wage-loss and medical benefits to the injured workers of North Dakota, in the event that WSI would be dissolved. Some of WSI’s active claims stretch back into the 1930s. The reserve fund is an estimate of what the cumulative future payments will be for all active injured worker claims.