Delaware OKs Decreases in WC Voluntary Loss Cost, Residual Market Rate

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Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart today announced the approval of the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau’s (DCRB) workers’ compensation amended rate filing, resulting in overall average decreases of 9.7 percent in the residual market rate and 11.5 percent in the voluntary market loss cost.

Stewart said the decreases are the result of cooperation among the DCRB, the Department of Insurance and Delaware’s Ratepayer Advocate, and are expected to save employers approximately $20 million in insurance costs this year.

The effective date of the decrease is retroactive to Dec. 1, 2014 for new and renewal business.

“After several years of rate increases, I am pleased to announce a decrease in the premium most business owners will pay this year when purchasing workers’ compensation insurance,” said Stewart.

Stewart said the decrease is the result of all the stakeholders working together to bring down Delaware’s high health care costs, which have been driving rates up over recent years.

“I want to thank the General Assembly for passing House Bill 373 last session, requiring that medical costs be reduced over the next three years,” said Stewart. “I particularly want to thank my fellow members of the Governor’s Workers Compensation Oversight Panel, including Chair Rich Heffron, and Attorney General Matt Denn, past Chair of Workers’ Compensation Task Force, for doing the hard work that laid the foundation for HB 373.”

HB 373, which was signed into law last July, requires a 33 percent reduction in medical expenditures phased in over a three-year period; imposition of caps expressed as percentages of Medicare per-procedure reimbursements beginning on Jan. 31, 2017; and a revision of certain procedures pertaining to the position of Ratepayer Advocate.

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