View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2010/10/15/114084.htm
Florida workers’ compensation insurers have been given the green light to raise rates an average 7.8 percent starting Jan. 1, 2011.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has told the insurers’ rating organization, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), that he would approve a rate filing to increase rates by 7.8 percent. NCCI had sought an 8.3 percent increase.
It is the first rate hike approved in seven years. The state enacted reforms in 2003 that have been credited with helping to lower rates.
“The rate increase that that has been justified would still give Florida the lowest rates in the southeast, and likely keep us in the top 10 states nationally for most affordable workers’ compensation insurance,” said McCarty.
McCarty’s decision is technically a denial of NCCI’s 8.3 percent filing. McCarty’s actuaries used a different medical trend factor than the one used in the NCCI filing which led to a marginally different outcome.
If NCCI accepts McCarty’s opinion, this would give Florida a cumulative decrease of 61.9 percent since 2003, and keep Florida’s workers’ compensation rates below the state’s average rates in 2009
The Office of Insurance Regulation conducted a public hearing on this rate issue on Oct. 5, 2010