The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) proposes rates for workers’ compensation insurance in many states.  Owing to a significant drop in claims frequency and reductions in the costs of claims, NCCI proposed to reduce the cost of workers’ compensation in Florida by 14.1 percent effective January 1, 2009.  The increased reduction would save employers in Florida more than $610 million during 2009.

On October 15th, 2008, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty rejected the  NCCI’s rate filing and issued an order requiring NCCI to decrease rates in Florida by 18.6 percent.  Commissioner McCarty cited disagreement with NCCI’s methods of calculating trend factors, which estimate projected changes in wages, profit losses and claims frequency, and profit factors, as the reason for the order.

According to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s (FLOIR) news release, this is the largest annual decrease on record.  The FLOIR news release can be found by clicking here.