California Workers’ Comp Public Self-Insured Claim Volume, Total Paid and Incurred Losses Fall

Initial data on fiscal year 2022/23 public self-insured claims experience in the California workers’ compensation system show that public self-insured’s total claim volume, spurred by a sharp drop in indemnity claims, fell 16.8% in the 12 months ending June 30 of this year, a new report shows.

That rend helped drive down public self-insured total incurred losses for the second time since the pandemic hit, while public self-insured total paid losses fell for the first time since the 2012 workers’ comp reforms were implemented a decade ago, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute report.

The CWCI produced the report based on the annual summary of public self-insured data issued on December 5 by the Office of Self-Insurance Plans, which offers the first look at the workers’ comp experience of cities, counties, and other public self-insured entities for the 12 months ending June 30 of this year.

Compared with the initial summary from FY 2021/22, the new report shows California’s public self-insured work force rose by 3.4% to nearly 2.09 million workers last year, with wages and salaries for those workers totaling just under $162 billion. The public self-insured employers reported 120,328 claims last year, 24,348 fewer than the record 144,676 claims in the FY 2021/22 initial report, prompted in part by the influx of COVID-19 claims among public sector employees, according to CWCI.

The distribution of the $510.3 million in total payments on the FY 2022/23 public self-insured claims at first report shows indemnity payments accounted for $317.1 million, 17.4% less than in the prior year, while medical payments accounted for $193.2 million, 3.8% less than in FY 2021/22. However, with far fewer claims last year, that works out to an average benefit payment of $4,241 for the FY 2022/23 claims, 4.9% more than the comparable figure from FY 2021/22, according to CWCI.

Institute members and subscribers can access the bulletin by logging in on CWCI’s website. OSIP’s annual summaries for private and public self-insured employers from the past dozen years are posted online.

Topics California Profit Loss Workers' Compensation