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Missouri recommends decrease in 2020 workers comp rates

Posted On: Dec. 6, 2019 7:16 AM CST

Declining rates

The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance has recommended a 1.6% decrease in workers compensation insurance loss costs for 2020, the sixth consecutive year that average comp rates would decrease.

The 1.6% decrease in loss costs between Jan. 1, 2019, and Jan. 1, 2020, is driven by declining lost-time claim frequencies, while increasing average medical claim costs partially offset the decrease, the department said Wednesday in a statement.

The change is the smallest decrease in recent years. In late 2018, the decrease was 3.5% for 2019; and in 2017, the department recommended two decreases: one midyear at 4% and another at 3% for 2018. In 2016, the department proposed a decrease of 3.7%.

“Missouri’s lost-time claim frequency continues to decrease due to safety improvements in the workplace, but average medical claim costs have increased every year since 2014,” Department of Commerce and Insurance Director Chlora Lindley-Myers said in the statement.