Louisiana: Improved safety results in falling workers' comp rates, commission says

Employers in Louisiana will likely see their workers' compensation rates decline for the third consecutive year.

Jim Donelon, commissioner of the Department of Insurance, announced that the state approved the National Council on Compensation Insurance's loss cost filing recommending a 17.4 percent drop in rates.

Most workers' comp carriers in Louisiana use the NCCI annual loss cost filing report to help formulate their insurance rates. Companies will begin adopting the new rates by filing for a rate decrease with the Department of Insurance beginning in late March through September. The lower rates will go into effect within approximately 45 days after approval of the adoption.

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Donelon said this reduction follows an 8.6 percent reduction in workers' comp rates last year and a 15.8 percent decline in 2007. The 17.4 percent decrease is also the highest reduction of the 35 states analyzed by NCCI.

"This is positive news for our state's business community and will help greatly in our economic development efforts as Louisiana continues to recover from the hurricanes of 2005 and 2008," Donelon said. "Our market continues to show strong signs of improvement, particularly in the area of improved worker safety. Improved worker safety leads to fewer workplace injuries across most employment classes, a trend we have seen over the past few years and the leading cause of these recent rate reductions."

State insurer pays dividend. In addition to the rate announcement, the state's largest writer of workers' comp insurance recently paid a $7.5 million dividend to qualifying policyholders. The Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corp. is a private, nonprofit mutual insurance company. Kristin W. Wall, president and CEO of the LWCC, said the latest move will raise the company's cumulative total dividend paid to policyholders over the past six years to more than $121 million.

April 2, 2009

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