Massachusetts regulators agree to hold off on rate hike

Employers likely won't pay higher workers' comp rates for the next 18 months. The Workers' Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau reached an agreement with other state officials to forego its proposed 6.6 percent rate increase.

In a statement, the WCRIBMA said that even though the filing shows the rate hike "would be warranted" it reached agreement with the State Rating Bureau in the Division of Insurance and the Office of Attorney General to maintain rates at the current levels through Aug. 31, 2012.

The rating bureau submitted the proposed rate increase in February. Since then, the organization and the two state agencies have been negotiating a potential resolution, according to the attorney general's office.

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The agreement stipulates that the WCRIBMA will deliver to the two agencies by Oct. 15 the most recent aggregate financial data and a list of those companies whose data, in the opinion of the WCRIBMA are material but have not been found to be sufficiently reliable for use in ratemaking with a statement of the reason for any such findings.

The stipulation also says it will "not limit or impair the WCRIB's ongoing ability to exercise actuarial judgment about the reliability of data for use in ratemaking or to attempt to reconcile or validate data."

Read more at the WorkersComp Forum homepage.

March 24, 2011

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