The California Workers’ Compensation Institute on Tuesday said growth in lost-time claims and double-digit increases in average paid and incurred indemnity drove public self-insureds' total paid losses up 7.3% to a record $445 million.

CWCI reported total incurred losses climbed 5.8% to more than $1.4 billion.

CWCI also said a summary of public sector self-insured comp claims from the state Office of Self-Insurance Plans for the fiscal year that ended in June — the first full year of data on claims that occurred during the pandemic — shows that a 15.5% increase in more costly indemnity claims largely offset a 19.7% decrease in medical-only claims and a 0.85% decrease in frequency.

The average paid amounts per claim by benefit type shows average medical payments fell for the third year in a row in FY 2020-21, declining from $1,578 to $1,500 (-5.2%), which was the largest decrease since the post-SB  863 decline recorded a decade ago, according to a CWCI bulletin.

In contrast, average indemnity payments climbed 17.4% to $2,653 in FY 2020-21, which CWCI said is likely the combined effect of longer total disability durations due to some treatment delays and reduced medical care during the pandemic, increased salary continuation payments made to public safety officers and others pursuant to state law, and increased death benefit payments, as the number of death claims in the public self-insured sector more than doubled from 104 claims in FY 2019-20 to 220 in FY 2020-21.

The increase in average indemnity payments more than offset the decrease in average medical payments, resulting in an overall 8.2% increase in the average amount paid on all public self-insured claims.

Average incurred medical costs per claim fell 2.6% to $6,316. At the same time, average incurred indemnity costs increased to $6,847. The combined result is a 6.7% increase in the average incurred loss per claim, to $13,135.

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