Colo. Workers’ Comp Loss Costs May Decrease

Workers’ compensation costs for some Colorado employers may decrease later this year.

Colorado Insurance Commissioner Doug Dean announced that the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) has filed an average decrease of 6.1 percent in workers’ compensation insurance loss costs for Colorado, to be effective on Jan. 1, 2004. After consideration of the change to the average experience modification factor, the total impact to premium as a result of this filing is a decrease of 6.2 percent.

The Division’s consulting actuary will now review this data and make a recommendation to approve it or modify it. If this filing is approved, some employers, but not all, should see a decrease in their workers’ compensation premiums. The proposed rate changes for individual class codes range from a 35 percent decrease to a 21 percent increase.

A public hearing to discuss this proposal will be held on Sept. 17, 2003 beginning at 1 p.m., at the Colorado Division of Insurance, 1560 Broadway, Suite 850. Interested parties may comment on the proposal before the filing is approved, denied or modified.

The NCCI, a rating and advisory organization, collects annual data on workers’ compensation claims for the insurance industry. The Colorado NCCI loss cost filing includes data from 150 insurance companies that write workers’ compensation insurance in Colorado and includes loss experience from the companies for a five-year period. This is the third year in a row that workers’ compensation loss costs have declined. On Dec. 1, 2002, the loss costs decreased an average of 10.5 percent, and the decline was 7.4 percent on the 2001 filing which became effective Jan. 1, 2002. However, it should be noted that loss costs are a significant, but not the only factor, used in establishing each employer’s actual premium.