Rate of employers seeking residual workers comp cover slowed in 2013

Workers compensation residual market premiums grew at a slower rate in 2013 compared with 2012, according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc.

The national residual workers comp market had $1.01 billion in premium volume in 2013, up 33% from 2012, Boca Raton-based NCCI said in a report released last week. That’s compared with residual market premium growth of 60% from 2011 to 2012.

“By the fourth quarter of 2013, the rate of new premium bound leveled off,” the report reads. “This indicates an end of the increase in new residual market business that began in 2011. Time will tell. However, at the start of 2014, the volume of new businesses seeking coverage in the residual market is down from the same period in early 2013.”

The residual market represented 6.6% of overall workers comp market share in 2013 for the 30 states where NCCI administers residual market plans, NCCI said. That’s up from up from 5.3% market share for NCCI states in 2012.

The residual workers comp market guarantees insurance availability for employers turned down by insurers in the voluntary workers comp market. Some states require all workers comp insurers underwriting coverage to participate in a residual market pool.