Virginia SCC Approves Revisions to Workers’ Comp Premium Levels
Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) last week approved revisions to the premium levels charged for the state’s workers’ compensation insurance.
Workers’ compensation insurance provides medical care and wage replacement benefits to injured workers. Almost all Virginia employers are required to provide the coverage to their employees.
The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) sought the revisions. The changes approved by the SCC will decrease the overall premium levels for the federal classifications in both the voluntary market and assigned risk plan and industrial and surface and underground coal mines in the assigned risk plan. They will increase the overall premium level for the industrial and surface and underground coal mine classifications in the voluntary market.
The changes will become effective April 1, 2014, for new and renewal workers’ compensation policies, as follows:
• Voluntary market loss costs in the industrial class will increase 4.1 percent. In the federal class, they will decrease 2.3 percent. For surface coal mines, they will increase 18 percent. And for underground coal mines, they will increase 18 percent.
• Assigned risk rates in the industrial class will decrease 7.6 percent. In the federal class, they will decrease 10.7 percent. For surface coal mines, they will decrease 1.6 percent. And for underground coal mines, they will decrease 2.2 percent.
NCCI, a Florida-based rate service organization, represents insurance companies licensed to write workers’ compensation insurance in Virginia.
The State Corporation Commission said Virginia’s workers’ compensation rates remain among the lowest in the country.
Source: Virginia State Corporation Commission