Workers’ Comp Bureau of California Issues COVID-19 Analysis

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The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California in collaboration with several other workers’ comp rating bureaus released the COVID-19’s Impact on Workers Compensation report.

To better understand the pandemic’s impact on the workers’ comp industry, a collaborative effort was made to analyze COVID-19 claims characteristics, including representation from the following workers’ comp bureaus: California, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the National Council on Compensation Insurance.

The analysis does not include experience from self-insured employers or denial and expense-only claims.

Key findings, including those impacting California, in the report include:

In California, COVID-19 claims represent 9% of total claim counts and 6 percent of total incurred losses.
Indemnity-only claims emerged as a significant share of reported COVID-19 claims.
In aggregate, COVID-19 claims that remained open have relatively higher case reserves due to the uncertainty of COVID-19 infections, later than average accident dates and the timing of the various waves of the pandemic.

The full report can be found in the research section of the WCIRB website.