Posted on 05/11/2004 7:09:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The sweeping workers' compensation legislation approved by lawmakers last month will generate at least $3.3 billion in savings, an insurance industry research group estimated Tuesday.
The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau said the legislation would cut statewide benefit costs by approximately $3 billion and loss adjustment expenses by about $300 million.
That would translate into about a 2 percent to 3 percent drop in the so-called pure premium advisory rate recommended by state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi last fall, the bureau said.
Many insurers use that rate as a benchmark in setting the prices they charge employers for workers' compensation insurance.
Garamendi is schedule to issue a new pure premium rate in time to impact any rate adjustments made by insurers on July 1.
The rating bureau said its evaluation of the legislation didn't include its impact on benefits for injured workers with permanent disabilities. Those changes won't take effect, the bureau said, until the state Division of Workers' Compensation adopts a new permanent disability rating schedule.
Lawmakers approved the legislation in response to outcries from employers about the skyrocketing costs of workers' compensation insurance.
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On the Net: Read the bill, SB899, at www.senate.ca.gov. The rating bureau Web site is at http://wcirbonline.org
Really creative. A silk purse from a sow's ear.
AP apparently searched for weeks to find something, anything, to herald the sweeping reform
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