Florida insurance commissioner rejects NCCI filing

Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier has declined to approve a rate filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance and instead has recommended a workers compensation rate reduction beyond what was recommended by the ratings bureau, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation said in a statement released Thursday.

Mr. Altmaier proposed a workers compensation rate decrease of 7.5% on new and renewal policies, and the Boca Raton, Florida-based NCCI has been asked to amend the filings by Nov. 4, according to the commissioner’s statement. In early September, NCCI recommended a 5.4% rate decrease in 2020 for Florida. If the amended filing is approved, Florida businesses can expect to see the rate change take effect Jan. 1, 2020. 

NCCI’s September recommendation was based in part on experience that occurred before two significant Florida Supreme Court decisions in 2016, according to the commissioner’s statement. Those decisions, Castellanos v. Next Door Co. and Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg, resulted in substantial changes to the state’s worker compensation marketplace.

The commissioner chose to reject NCCI’s recommendations and instead rely upon three-year averages for development factor selection for 2020 and going forward.

The commissioner said the loss ratio trend data in the NCCI filing showed annual trend values for indemnity ranging from -4.7% to -2.7% and for medical ranging from -5.7% to -2.6%.

“NCCI’s selected annual indemnity trend of -2.5% and the selected annual medical trend of -2.0% appear to be unreasonable relative to the ranges indicated above,” according to the commissioner’s statement.

The commissioner also asked that NCCI “provide a detailed explanatory memory and quantitative analysis” regarding the effect of the Castellanos decision in future filings.