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No advisory pure premium rate filing for mid-year 2020: WCIRB

Posted On: Apr. 9, 2020 12:05 PM CST

California

The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California on Wednesday announced that it would not submit its July 1 mid-year filing given the business impacts of coronavirus.

The governing committee for the Oakland, California-based ratings agency recently met to review the actuarial committee’s analysis of the California workers compensation experience as of Dec. 31, 2019. The report showed the average July 1, 2020, advisory pure premium rate based on Dec. 31, 2019, experience and the methodologies recommended by the Actuarial Committee is $1.53 per $100 of payroll, which is $0.01 above the average approved Jan. 1, 2020, advisory pure premium rate of $1.52, according to a statement. 

Yet “given the minor indicated change in advisory pure premium rates and the exceptionally high level of uncertainty of the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic related to the impacts of the impending economic downturn on payrolls and claims costs, the potential slowdown in claims activity resulting from the statewide stay-at-home order and emerging claims arising from COVID-19 diagnoses, the committee unanimously decided not to submit a July 1, 2020 filing,” according to the statement.

The committee also agreed that the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and payroll and claim cost level should be considered as part of the WCIRB’s Jan. 1, 2021, pure premium rate filing, which is anticipated to be submitted to the Insurance Commissioner in August, according to the statement. 

More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here