WCIRB Raises Advisory Pure Premium 3.4%

The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s Governing Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the WCIRB to file an advisory pure premium rate for 2014 of $2.62 per $100 of payroll, 3.4 percent above the industry average filed pure premium rate of $2.53 per $100 of payroll as of July 1, 2013.

The WCIRB board voted to submit two filings to the California Department of Insurance. The first filing will contain proposed changes to the insurance commissioner’s Jan. 1, 2014 and Jan. 1, 2015 workers’ compensation regulations and will be submitted to CDI on Aug. 9.

The second filing, which will be submitted to CDI around Aug. 19, will contain the proposed Jan. 1, 2014 advisory pure premium rates.

WCIRB typically submits a single filing containing proposed changes to regulations and advisory pure premium rates. This year, CDI and WCIRB developed a bifurcated filing process to allow insurers more time to modify their operational systems to reflect any approved regulatory changes.

The proposed advisory pure premium rates reflect WCIRB’s most current evaluation of last year’s sweeping workers’ compensation reform law, Senate Bill No. 863, according to WCIRB.

The pure premium rates don’t reflect the potential impact of the new physician medical fee schedule based on the Resource Based Relative Value Scale, which is under consideration by the Division of Workers’ Compensation. If the DWC adopts the new schedule, WCIRB anticipates modifying its proposed advisory pure premium rates based on its evaluation of the cost impact of the new schedule on policy year 2014 medical costs.