WORKERS’ COMP CUT WEIGHED:

Workers’ compensation carriers have filed for a slight 2.3 percent reduction in loss costs in Rhode Island beginning in January. The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 16 on the proposal, which was submitted by the National Council on Compensation Insurance.

This past January, loss costs were reduced 20.2 percent. Prior to January, workers’ comp rates in the state had not changed since 1998, when the state approved a 9.4 percent to 10.5 percent rate reduction. While the industry made a filing in 2001, lawmakers prohibited consideration of the filing at that time. Since then, the state has changed its law to mandate that all employers with three or more employees, who had been excused from the mandate, be required to purchase coverage.