The WCIRB Governing Committee voted to authorize the WCIRB to submit a January 1, 2019 Advisory Pure Premium Rate Filing to the California Insurance Commissioner.

The Filing will propose advisory pure premium rates that average $1.70 per $100 of payroll, which is 4.5% less than the average approved July 1, 2018 advisory pure premium rate of $1.78 and 20% less than the industry average filed pure premium rate of $2.13 as of July 1, 2018.

If adopted, this would be the eighth consecutive pure premium rate decrease since 2015 totaling approximately 40%.

In his presentation to the Governing Committee, WCIRB EVP and Chief Actuary Dave Bellusci noted that the indicated January 1, 2019 average advisory pure premium reflects continued downward loss development, acceleration in claim settlements, sharply declining pharmaceutical costs and decline in the number of liens being filed.

Despite these continued favorable trends, Mr. Bellusci cautioned that allocated loss adjustment expenses continue to increase and that the medical savings driving these advisory pure premium rate decreases could erode if medical inflation rates were to return to levels closer to historical norms.

The WCIRB will submit its January 1, 2019 Advisory Pure Premium Rate Filing to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) on or around August 21, 2018.

The CDI will schedule a public hearing to consider the Filing and once the Notice of Proposed Action and Notice of Public Hearing is issued, the WCIRB will post a copy in the Filings and Plans section of the WCIRB website.