The Department of Industrial Relations says it needs $1.377 billion to fund parts of its operations. Those ops include fighting workers’ comp fraud and paying claims under two special funds for injured workers at uninsured employers and those who were partially disabled and suffered a new industrial injury. Costs associated with the latter program – …
The Department of Industrial Relations demands on employers (insurers) and self-insured again sets new records. The agency says it needs nearly $1.4 billion to fund 2021 operations. It expects employers …
Workers’ compensation was not a major issue in the California legislature this year, and of the handful of bills still in play as the session came to a close, only two made it across the finish line. SB 788 by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), addresses race, gender, and other factors in apportionment decisions. AB 872 …
The California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA) has good news. It is going another year without assessing California employers or other insureds to support its operations. Recent operational changes make future assessments even less likely. Association officials note that CIGA has nearly $2.7 billion in surplus across all of its lines of responsibility – workers’ compensation, …
According to the Bureau’s latest data, California’s workers’ compensation insurance carriers returned a pre-tax underwriting profit of nearly $2 billion last year. The 14% underwriting profit ratio is the third straight year of double-digit underwriting margins, but the results include State Fund’s numbers which adversely skew the results. The results sans State Fund are eye-popping. …
The California Insurance Guarantee Association’s board of directors learned this month that the agency’s projected expenses for the coming fiscal year are down nearly $38 million – a 45% reduction – from the agency’s budget just three years ago. Driving the savings are reduced spending on outside attorneys and decreased use of third-party administrators (TPAs). …
The Assembly Insurance Committee last week passed three bills that amend the requirements for some workers’ comp reports, increase oversight of a key industry resource, and would extend the California Insurance Guarantee Association’s bond issuing authority. The bills advanced without opposition. Two of the bills are Committee bills, but Committee chair Assemblyman Tom Daly (D-Anaheim) …
The Senate Rules Committee gave its unanimous approval to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s appointment of Joe Holloway (see photo) to be the chief executive officer of California’s Conservation and Liquidation Office. Holloway has been with the agency for nearly two decades and overseen numerous carrier insolvencies and conservations. He replaces David Wilson, who retired last …