NCCI launches tool to estimate pandemic impact on comp

The National Council for Compensation Insurance on Friday launched an online tool designed to help states and employers calculate the impact COVID-19 could have on workers compensation.

The tool allows users to adjust variables such as job classifications and infection rates to model the potential impact on expected losses for a jurisdiction and workforce, according to Boca Raton, Florida-based NCCI.

Assumptions about infection rates, hospitalization rates, compensability rates, and fatality rates come into play when assessing COVID-19’s potential impact on the comp system, NCCI said. Some assumptions have a more pronounced impact than others, and some contain a significant amount of variability, it added.

The tool may also be used to evaluate the potential impact on losses to the system of additional user-defined hypothetical scenarios and could help states draft COVID-19 responses related to comp coverage, the NCCI said.

NCCI recently calculated the overall effect of COVID-19 on workers compensation could range from $1 billion to $80 billion.

More insurance and workers compensation news on the coronavirus crisis here.