Calif. workers comp bureau may recommend rate increase up to 40%

SAN FRANCISCO—The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California soon may recommend a workers compensation pure premium rate increase of up to 40%.

The WCIRB's Actuarial Committee met Friday to review California workers comp insurer experience and found “significant pure premium rate inadequacy,” the San Francisco rating bureau announced Friday.

The WCIRB also said in a statement that insurers' “experience shows a deterioration of more than 10 percentage points since the WCIRB's Jan. 1, 2011, filing which recommended an increase in pure premium rates of 27.7%.”

Increased claims frequency, increased losses and rising loss adjustment expenses are driving expenses, the WCIRB said.

The organization's Governing Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider whether to authorize a call for increasing rates. California's insurance commissioner then can decide whether to adopt the rating bureau's advice and recommend a rate increase.