WCIRB Releases 2002 Annual WC Report

The California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) 2002 Annual Report is now available on the WCIRB Web site. The online publication is representative of the WCIRB’s increasing utilization of its Web site and the Internet to communicate with its members and the workers’ comp community.

According to the report, “Many of the challenges presented by California’s workers’ compensation market since the beginning of competitive rating persisted throughout 2002 and continued to negatively impact workers’ compensation insurers. While sharply increasing premium rates resulted in improved combined loss and expense ratios, the return to financial stability for much of the workers’ compensation insurance industry remained a concern due to a combination of factors, including rapidly increasing medical costs, dramatically rising reinsurance costs, reserving inadequacies, and declining investment returns. By year’s end, many in the workers’ compensation community were also becoming concerned about the availability of capital to support the anticipated future growth of the workers’ compensation system and the impact of rapidly rising premium rates on employers’ operating expenses.

“Rising medical costs and worsening loss development were of particular concern this year as the WCIRB, in its role as the Insurance Commissioner’s Designated Statistical Agent, analyzed loss and premium data for ratemaking and public policy purposes. Our analysis of the available data prompted us to propose several increases to the advisory pure premium rate level.”

For more detail, or to read the report in its entirety, visit the “About WCIRB” section on WCIRB’s Web site, http://wcirbonline.org/index.asp.