COMPANION PROPERTY STOPS NEW WORKERS’ COMP POLICIES

The Companion Property and Casualty Insurance Group will stop issuing new workers’ compensation policies in South Carolina and won’t renew certain other accounts starting in January.

Companion, a Columbia-based subsidiary of BlueCross Blue Shield of South Carolina, said that a Dec. 1 moratorium on new policies “will remain in effect until we see adequate evidence that sufficient changes are in motion to help return the marketplace to profitability.”

The carrier also will not renew customers who limit their coverage to workers’ compensation only. Steven Bloss, Companion vice president, said that workers’ compensation customers will be able to extend their policies if they property, casualty or automobile insurance.

Companion met with many of the 60 agents statewide who offer its workers’ compensation policies to explain its decision. It will continue to provide workers’ compensation policies for customers who can’t obtain coverage elsewhere, under a “carrier of last resort” service contract with the state.

The company is hunkering down amid a lingering fight over a hefty rate request for workers’ compensation insurance that began in July when an industry-led group proposed an unprecedented 32.9 percent increase for South Carolina.

Insurers say they need higher rates because they are losing money on workers’ compensation. For every $1 paid in premiums in South Carolina in 2003, insurers paid out $1.27 in losses and expenses. Nationwide, that figure was $1.02.