D.C. Allows Workers’ Comp Rate Cut

Workers’ compensation rates decreases avergaing 7.6 percent for the industrial classes in the voluntary market and 10.6 percent for the industrial classes in the residual market assigned risk category have been approved in the District of Columbia.

Insurance Commissioner Thomas E. Hampton recently approved the rate filings from the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) with an effective date of Nov. 1, 2007.

“With lower workers’ compensation rates, the District’s premium cost will be more competitive with our neighboring jurisdictions,” said Hampton.

According to Hampton, the rate decreases were a result of an overall decline in claim frequency, and less severity in the claims amount.

These decreases are in addition to the voluntary decrease of 7.9 percent and assigned risk decrease of 5.6 percent for 2007.

The 2006 decrease in claim frequency extended a trend that started in the 1990s, according to the NCCI, the statistical organization that prepares workers’ compensation rate recommendations. The decline seems to have become just as prominent among the medium and large claims, as it is for the small claims.

Hampton noted that while most of the insurance companies will use the NCCI-recommended rates, different additional expenses might add to the rates that each company sets.

Source: The District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking