Report: California Private Self-Insured Employers Comp Claim Frequency Rose Last Year

Workers’ compensation claim frequency reported by private self-insured employers in California rose last year, as the incidence of both indemnity and medical-only claims rose from the 2017 levels, the California Workers’ Compensation Institute reported.

This is the second consecutive year frequency rose, according to the CWCI, which reviewed data released this month by the state Office of Self-Insurance Plans.

The OSIP summary of private self-insured data issued on July 1 offers a look at California’s private, self-insured claims experience for cases reported in 2018. The summary includes medical-only and indemnity claim counts, as well as the total paid and incurred losses on those claims through December 2018.

The new report summarizes the experience of private self-insured employers who covered 2.260 million employees last year. Wages and salaries for those private self-insured employees totaled $112.7 billion in 2018, or 9.1 percent more than the $103.3 billion noted for self-insured employees in the 2017 summary, according to CWCI.

Private self-insured employers reported 83,873 claims in the initial reports for 2018, which is 4,218 more than in the 2017 first reports.

Private self-insured employers reported a total of $238.6 million in paid losses on 2018 claims through the end of the year, which was $19.9 million more than the comparable payout for 2017 claims, as total indemnity payments in the initial reports were $12.1 million higher and total medical payments were up by $7.8 million, according to CWCI.

The total incurred losses on these claims jumped to $659 million, up $28 million from the initial incurred reported for 2017 claims, as incurred indemnity increased by $14.1 million and incurred medical was up by $13.9 million. Since 2015 claim volume has been on the rise, with the latest count showing 83,873 claims in 2018, which is up 10.8 percent from a low in 2015, and that increase has become a key factor in driving up both total paid and total incurred losses over the past three years, according to CWCI.