WORKERS’ COMP RATES REMAIN UNCHANGED:

The New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board has withdrawn its proposed rate increase of 9.5 percent, which means that workers’ compensation rates will remain at their current levels through Oct. 1, 2005. NYCIRB originally sought last year a 29.3 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance rates, which was rejected by the New York State Insurance Department in July 2004. The department rejected that filing. The insurers’ rating bureau subsequently reduced its request to 9.5 percent. That rate request was the topic of a public hearing earlier this year. The NYCIRB compiles and evaluates data from all of the state’s workers’ comp insurers in making its rate filings.