WCIRB President’s Message to the Workers’ Compensation Community

Oakland, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) - In an open letter to the California workers’ compensation community, Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) President and CEO Bill Mudge highlights the current state and challenges in California’s workers’ compensation industry. The letter also spotlights a few of the WCIRB’s achievements in the past year as well as key initiatives for this year and beyond that are aimed at deepening its connection and value to the stakeholder community it serves.

President's Message to Our California Workers' Compensation Community

The California workers’ compensation marketplace today remains generally healthy for insurers, employers and injured workers. The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) continues to chronicle the overwhelmingly positive outcomes from the latest comprehensive system reforms of 2012 and forward. These reforms fueled, in large measure, an environment of stable claims frequency and loss severity (in both indemnity and medical) and a broadly competitive market, with increased benefits for injured workers.

For injured workers, these reforms have provided $800 million in increased benefits for permanent disability.

For employers, the stable loss cost environment, coupled with a growing California economy spurred by higher wages and lower unemployment, has contributed to eight consecutive advisory pure premium rate reductions approved by the Insurance Commissioner from January 2015 through January 2019 – in aggregate totaling more than a 40 percent overall reduction.

For insurers, the WCIRB is projecting through 2018 a sixth consecutive year of California workers’ compensation industry accident year combined loss and expense ratios below 100 percent – the longest stretch of below 100 combined ratios over the past 40 years.

During this period of significant change and resulting stability, the WCIRB has continued to be the trusted, objective provider of actuarially based advisory pure premiums, industry research and reform evaluations that inform and advise all stakeholders about the state of the California workers’ compensation system – a system to which we have been integral for more than 100 years.

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