WCIRB: Continued Increase in California Claim Frequency

Workers’ compensation indemnity claim frequency in California has continued to rise unlike in most other states, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau.

The WCIRB recently issued an update to its Analysis of Changes in Indemnity Claim Frequency report, which was originally published in 2012 and last updated in December 2013.

In prior reports, WCIRB researchers explored potential causes for the increases in claim frequency in California that have persisted since 2010 and that differ from the claim frequency experience of other states.

workers_compPrior reports have identified a number of factors influencing claim frequency including increases in cumulative injury claims, increases in smaller non-cumulative injury claims that may have been reported as medical-only in the past, increases in the proportion of indemnity claims relative to total claims, and increases in late-reported indemnity claims and the proportion of medical-only claims that later transition to indemnity.

In this latest update, WCIRB researchers studied the influencing factors driving recent claim frequency based on the most up-to-date data available.

The WCIRB’s findings include: