Workers’ compensation premiums in California continue to grow at double-digit rates, according to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau. The 2014 Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary, which differs slightly from the WCIRB figures, showed California’s workers’ comp premium rates were $3.48 last year, topping No. 2 Connecticut by 61 cents. While rates in California are headed up, other states just announced rate reductions.

Nevada state officials announced that workers compensation insurance rates are heading lower, with the biggest decrease in loss cost rates since 2010. The lower rates are good for employers, said the announcement from the state Division of Insurance. Acting Insurance Commissioner Amy Parks approved a filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance for an average decrease of 5.5 percent for Nevada workers’ compensation voluntary insurance loss costs.

An average decrease of 4.2 percent for workers’ compensation insurance assigned-risk rates was also approved.

The filing will take effect Tuesday. This decrease in loss costs is the largest since a 2010 filing when loss costs decreased by an average of 7.6 percent.

This suggests that the amount of reported workers’ comp claims will not grow over time by as large a proportion as previously anticipated. Both indemnity and medical loss components of workers’ comp, as analyzed by NCCI in its recently approved filing, showed improved experience and favorable loss development, according to Parks.

In addition to the average decrease of 4.2 percent for the assigned-risk market, NCCI also reduced its assigned-risk expense constant from $240 to $160. This change would tend to benefit smaller risks in the assigned-risk market and is thus a change that is favorable to small-business development in Nevada.

Pennsylvania businesses will see another decrease in workers’ compensation insurance rates, while benefit levels for injured workers will be maintained. Workers’ comp insurance rates will drop 0.90 percent, effective April 1, reducing a key expense for many companies and saving Pennsylvania businesses an estimated $20 million this year.

The rate reduction follows the Insurance Department’s approval of the Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau’s annual loss cost filing. These loss costs are used to determine the premiums businesses pay for workers’ compensation insurance. The premium savings for an individual employer will vary based on the employer’s risk classification, claims experience, and other factors.

This is the fifth consecutive workers’ compensation insurance cut in as many years in Pennsylvania, and brings the cumulative savings to $570 million for the past five years. Workers’ compensation insurance covers the cost of medical care and rehabilitation for injured workers, lost wages, and death benefits for the dependents of those killed in work-related accidents.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation said that it wants to cut the average rate by 8.6 percent for the one-year period that begins July 1. The cut is projected to save private employers $113 million. The cut would be the latest in a series of reductions in premiums for private employers that began in 2011. If it is adopted by the bureau’s board next month, private employers will pay $463 million less a year than they did in 2011, a 28.2 percent reduction. The average rate would fall to $1.07 per $100 in payroll, the lowest rate in at least 40 years, the bureau said.

The bureau has credited lower rates to lower-than-expected claims costs and a decline in workplace injuries.