Nonprofit Wins Classification Dispute

Norcal Crew, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit competitive youth rowing program, prevailed in a dispute with its workers’ comp carrier and the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau. The organization successfully fought off reclassification of its operations to a class with an advisory pure premium rate 2.5 times higher than the workers’ comp rate for its historical classification … Read More »

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New Ruling In 20-Year-Old Premium Dispute

The Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a second decision in the two-decade-long dispute between State Compensation Insurance Fund and the temporary nurse staffing firm ReadyLink over workers’ comp premium owed on per diem payments. The ruling upholds the award of over $500,000 in additional premium and allows State Fund to recover its appeal costs. … Read More »

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Premium Audit Dispute Over Timecards & Dual Wage

A small electrical contractor who appealed a premium audit bill to the California Department of Insurance Administrative Hearing Bureau is getting some of the additional premium back. The parties settled before trial. But it is an interesting story and lesson. D&D Electrical and State Farm ask the Department to dismiss D&D’s appeal, filed last year, … Read More »

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Rate Increase Drivers Identified

The insurer majority on the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s governing committee pushed through a request for a 10.4% increase in California workers’ comp advisory pure premium rates effective September 1, 2026. An alternative proposal by the public members for a lower 5.1% rate hike was rejected by the industry executives. The filing for the … Read More »

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Written Premium Down, But Charged Rates Tick Up

California workers’ comp carrier’s written premium was down some 4% for the first quarter of 2025 compared to last year. At the same time, carriers’ average charged rates were up 1% — the first increase in average charged rates in over a decade (see charts). The findings are from the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s … Read More »

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Bracing for the Rate Hike Decision

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the California Department of Insurance are reviewing and evaluating testimony by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau in support of its request for an 11.2% increase in the September 1st, 2025, advisory pure premium rates. They are weighing it against a competing proposal recommending an 8.1% increase that was developed … Read More »

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What Costs are Driving Workers’ Comp Rate Increase?

The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau and its insurance carrier members are filing for an 11.2% overall increase in the advisory pure premium rates for policies incepting on or after September 1, 2025. The industry says the increase in experience alone justifies a rate hike of over 13%, but the independent actuary representing employers and … Read More »

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Public Sector Presumption Returns, PD Cost-of-Living Bill

The California Nurses Association’s ongoing effort to enact a workers’ comp presumption for private industry frontline healthcare workers cleared its initial policy committee hearing with only a single vote against it. The same committee also advanced a bill to enact an annual cost of living adjustment for permanent disability benefits. Employer interests heavily oppose both … Read More »

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