West Virginia WCC Receives Record Premiums

The West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission on Monday, Aug. 2 received more than $52 million in premiums, a new single-day record that exceeds the previous mark by nearly a half-million dollars.

Deposits by check or credit cards totaled $52,161,227.17 for the Workers’ Compensation Fund, the Employers’ Excess Liability Fund and the Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis Fund. The Commission administers all three funds.

“Employers are becoming more and more conscientious about getting their payments to us in a timely manner, and I think that’s reflected in today’s record deposit,” Executive Director Gregory Burton said.

The funds collected on Aug. 2 reflect premiums due for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, which ended June 30.

The previous single-day record was recorded on May 3—$51,687,102.62, or $474,125.09 less than the more recent total.

When asked if the $52 million mark may be topped anytime soon Andrew Wessels, director of Corporate Affairs – Workers’ Compensation, noted, “It’s difficult to predict. We do know that more employers are remaining in good standing with the Commission than ever before. As of July 31, 92.2 percent of West Virginia’s employers were in good standing, the highest percentage ever, and 459 fewer active employers are in default status than a year ago.”

Asked to describe the overall health of the Mountaineer State’s workers’ comp system, Wessels said, “The Commission has made significant progress. We’re in a much better cash position than anticipated.

“At the end of fiscal 2004 on June 30, our cash balance was $840.8 million, a difference of about $458.5 million from our April 2003 projection of $382.3 million. But we still have a $3.3 billion long-term deficit or unfunded liability that remains outstanding. This issue must be addressed by the Governor and the Legislature before the state can engage in any serious discussions about privatization. Under the reform legislation passed in 2003, known as Senate Bill 2013, the Commission will present a plan (without recommendation) to the Legislature about how privatization might work in our state, should lawmakers decide to go in that direction.”

One way to trim costs is to fight fraud within the system, and asked about that problem, Wessels noted, “The Commission created an Office of Inspector General as part of implementing Senate Bill 2013. We have doubled the staff of investigators with the intent of taking a very active and aggressive response to suspect fraud or abuse.

“As you may be aware, ‘fraud’ is very difficult to prove, but West Virginia is now one of just a very few states with a specific definition of ‘abuse’ within our statutes. It’s difficult to establish reliable statistics when it comes to the prevalence of fraud and abuse, and we always make it a point to note that cracking down on fraud will not bring a lot of dollars in the door to impact our deficit. What a crackdown will do is act as a deterrent to employers, medical providers and injured workers who might otherwise engage in illegal activity.

“We are preparing to launch a media campaign this fall to build awareness of the problems that fraud and abuse cause our system, how to detect the warning signs of fraud and abuse, and how to report suspected problems.”

Topics Fraud Workers' Compensation Virginia West Virginia