Workers’ Compensation Loss Costs Going Down Again in Kentucky

Workers’ compensation loss costs used by insurers in figuring rates to charge employers are going down for the eighth straight year.

The loss cost figures show an average reduction of 7.9 percent for the 590 industrial classes used in Kentucky, the same decrease as in 2012. The industrial classes include manufacturing, office and clerical, contracting, and goods and services. For coal classes, surface mining decreased 4.9 percent and underground mining costs decreased 4.8 percent.

Sharon Clark, state insurance commissioner, said her department approved the loss costs filing effective Oct. 1. The figures are submitted by the advisory organization, the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI), on behalf of all workers’ compensation carriers writing in the state.

“We recently heard from NCCI management that the countrywide outlook for workers’ comp rates has changed from ‘conflicted’ to ‘encouraging,'” said Clark. “Kentucky workers and employers have enjoyed eight consecutive decreases, lowering loss costs on average 46.8 percent. The trend continues to be positive for Kentucky.”

Data collected from insurance carriers is used to develop loss costs, which are the average compensation for lost wages, based on the level of disability, plus medical benefit payments. Use of the information is voluntary but most workers’ comp carriers use the NCCI loss cost values as a base to which they add their own loss adjustment and overhead expenses are to arrive at the rates charged to Kentucky employers.

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