SB 899 MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO WORK COMP SYSTEM:

April 19 marked the anniversary of the signing of SB 899, the third of three significant workers’ compensation reform measures enacted during the past few years by California’s elected officials. Together, these measures are reforming the Golden State’s workers’ comp system, changing a litigious, abuse-ridden environment into a healthy, predictable system, the American Insurance Association said. “California’s workers’ compensation market is changing from the most litigious, unpredictable and subjective system in the country to a market which will benefit the state’s employers and their workers,” said Ken Gibson, AIA vice president, western region. “The good news is that all signs indicate that the reform effort is substantially reducing costs, decreasing inefficiencies and attacking abuse in the system. The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau and Commissioner John Garamendi are considering the fourth rate decrease since the first reforms were signed in 2003. New carriers are entering the market, and insurers that stopped writing are taking a second look at California,” Gibson said.