Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart approved the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau’s workers’ compensation amended rate filing that could $20 million in employer insurance costs.
Stewart’s office stated that overall average decreases amounted to 9.7 percent in the residual market rate and 11.5 percent in the voluntary market loss cost.
Stewart said the decreases are the result of cooperation among various entities in efforts to deal with the issue that resulted in carriers attempting to push through sharp rate increases in the past couple of years.
Legislation was passed to deal with the insurance program for injured workers. While the rate reductions are good news, more work is expected in coming years in getting a handle on costs that threatened to move some employers out of state.
A previous effort to deal with rising premiums led to reductions for a few years until rates surged again, due to rising medical costs and what some critics saw as flaws with the methodology used by the insurance entity calculating the costs.
“After several years of rate increases, I am pleased to announce a decrease in the premium most business owners will pay this year when purchasing workers’ compensation insurance,” said Stewart. “As I said when the preliminary numbers were released in the fall, the decrease is the result of all the stakeholders working together to bring down Delaware’s high health care costs, which have been driving rates up over recent years.
“I want to thank the General Assembly for passing House Bill 373 last session, requiring that medical costs be reduced over the next three years. I particularly want to thank my fellow members of the Governor’s Workers Compensation Oversight Panel, including Chair Rich Heffron, and Attorney General Matt Denn, past Chair of Workers’ Compensation Task Force, for doing the hard work that laid the foundation for HB 373.”
The effective date of the decrease is retroactive to December 1, 2014 for new and renewal business.
