Citing lower medical loss development, as well as indemnity and medical severities that continue to emerge below expectations, the insurer and public members of the WCIRB Governing Committee who were in attendance voted unanimously to authorize the WCIRB to submit a mid-year pure premium rate filing to the California Department of Insurance (CDI).

The filing will propose a July 1, 2016 average advisory pure premium rate of $2.30 per $100 of payroll which is -10.4% lower than the corresponding industry average filed pure premium rate of $2.57 as of January 1, 2016 and 5.0% less than the Insurance Commissioner’s approved average January 1, 2016 advisory pure premium rate of $2.42.

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, 2015, which was reviewed at public meetings of the Actuarial Committee held on March 22 and April 5, 2016.

The Actuarial Committee noted that allocated loss adjustment expense in the post-SB 863 environment is emerging higher than projected and the count of liens increased sharply in 2015. In addition, cumulative trauma claims continue to increase, particularly in the Los Angeles region. Despite these upward pressures on system costs, the Governing Committee believed that lower frequency, lower medical severity and favorable loss development warranted a reduction in the industry average pure premium rate as of July 1, 2016.

The WCIRB anticipates submitting its filing to the CDI by April 11, 2016. The filing and all related documents will be available in the Publication and Filings section of the WCIRB website (www.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 (www.wcirb.com).