Several bills backed by the California Department of Insurance were signed into law, but two in particular interest the workers’ comp community. Those two are SB 1209 by Sen. Ben Allen (D-El Segundo) and SB 1206 by the Senate Insurance Committee. Allen, a candidate to succeed Lara as Insurance Commissioner, carried the bill to expand …
A proposal to help insurance carriers fight workers’ comp fraud will not be moving forward this session. The measure would have given carriers access to employers’ payroll records to crack down on premium fraud, but the Assembly Appropriations Committee did not advance the bill because of cost concerns. The bill would have created a cumbersome …
The 2025 market share totals are out, and the State Compensation Insurance Fund is no longer the largest writer of workers’ comp insurance in California. State Fund’s writings last year dropped below $1 billion, and AmTrust Financial Services Group surpassed it. AmTrust increased its premium by 12% to become the largest carrier in the California …
Executives at the State Compensation Insurance Fund are reporting that its estimated annual premium is up 6.5% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. The carrier says a double-digit increase in new business is driving the increase. “In New Business, the increase is driven by a combination of a …
Workers’ comp experts say that GT’s Living Food’s (GTLF) admitted failure to report roughly 97% of its payroll artificially inflated the rates of other employers in its class. The unreported payroll amounted to approximately 4% of the total payroll that went into rate making which means that the adopted rate was roughly 4% higher than …
A California employer is facing the double whammy of an X-Mod that’s bloated by years of unreported payroll, skewing its experience rating calculation. Now, it’s facing the impact of an 850 X-Mod on the additional premium that’s due as it seeks to bring its payroll reports into compliance. Law enforcement is involved, but no charges …
The Assembly Insurance Committee is carrying AB 1683 to end the sunset date on a program that allows workers’ comp carriers, third-party administrators, and self-insured employers to distribute workers’ comp indemnity benefits via prepaid debit cards. The prepaid cards have been authorized under a pilot program since 2018. A report released last fall showed that …
State Compensation Insurance Fund executives say that 2025 net premiums earned are trailing 2024 results by 8.9% due to a drop in renewals. But profitability, and policyholder surplus have increased. State Fund’s earned net workers’ comp premiums are $735 million through the first nine months of 2025, compared to $807 million in the same period …