The WCIRB Governing Committee voted to authorize the WCIRB to submit a mid-year pure premium rate filing to the California Department of Insurance (CDI).

The mid-year filing will propose July 1, 2018 advisory pure premium rates that average $1.80 per $100 of payroll which is 7.2% lower than the Insurance Commissioner’s approved average January 1, 2018 advisory pure premium rate of $1.94 and 19.0% less than the industry average filed pure premium rate as of January 1, 2018 of $2.22.

This proposed July 1, 2018 decrease follows six consecutive decreases since early 2015 and, if approved, will result in an average decrease of more than 35% from the January 1, 2015 advisory pure premium rates.

The Governing Committee’s decision was based on the WCIRB Actuarial Committee’s analysis of insurer loss and loss adjustment experience as of December 31, 2017 which was reviewed at public meetings of the Actuarial Committee held on March 19, and April 3, 2018.

The Actuarial Committee noted that cumulative injury claims continue to increase, particularly in the Los Angeles region. In addition, medical severities show signs of increase after several years of more modest severity trends driven by Senate Bill No. 863 and allocated loss adjustment expenses continue to increase.

Despite these upward pressures on system costs, the Governing Committee believed a reduction in advisory pure premium rates was warranted by the favorable loss development largely driven by significant increases in claim settlement rates, a sharp decline in lien filings following the implementation of Senate Bill No. 1160 and anticipated savings resulting from the new drug formulary.

The WCIRB anticipates submitting its filing to the CDI by April 10, 2018. The filing and all related documents will be available in the Filings and Plans section of the WCIRB website (wcirb.com) and the WCIRB will issue a Wire Story once the filing has been submitted.

Documents related to the Governing Committee meeting, including the agenda and materials displayed or distributed at the meeting, are available on the Committee Documents page of the WCIRB website.