Brouhaha Boils Over as Poizner Says No to 28% North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Rate Increase
Steve Poizner, the outgoing Insurance Commissioner for the CA Department of Insurance, has slapped down a request to hike Califonia workers’ compensation rates up by 27.7% for 2011, a move that has North Carolina workers’ compensation analysts talking. The insurance industry, represented most vocally by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, is not exactly singing Poizner’s praises. Last year, the group asked for a 30% rate hike, but the Department of Insurance denied the hike. They claim that, since 2008, actual premiums have only increased by 3% – due perhaps to competition and employer adaptations.
The state compensation fund will hike up its rate by 5.2% starting first of the New Year – similar to the premium increase the fund adopted in 2010.
Poizner has been at loggerheads with insurers in the past. In 2009, he spelled out more than two dozen efficiencies that insurers could avail themselves of to cut costs. He struck a disappointed tone in a recent statement: “workers’ compensation insurers have failed to demonstrate that they have adopted procedures to control costs so that they are operating efficiently.”
Poizner aims to push through several reforms to improve the review process to make everything. Those in the North Carolina workers’ compensation system are paying attention. His proposed reforms include:
1. Come up with advisory premiums based on the real rates that insurers file as opposed to theoretical benchmarks.
2. Include clear tables to help employers classify their workers, so that they can understand how rate changes will impact their businesses.
3. Use better data monitoring and filing techniques to help consumers understand how insurance pricing actually works and to avoid getting lost in the details, which can often get quite byzantine (i.e. complicated), even for professionals in the field.
If you or someone you care about has been struggling with a benefits issue – maybe an insurance company has stalled on approving a claim; or maybe your employer claims you got hurt at a previous job and not at your current one – avail yourself of the resources of a quality North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm.
Don’t fight a complicated, technical legal battle on your own. Even if you school yourself on all applicable rules and regulations, you could still make small errors which could have catastrophic consequences for your benefits, and, more broadly, for your ability to return to full health and productivity.
