In full transparency, the following is a press release from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.
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BOSTON — Under a settlement Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s Office reached with the Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau (WCRIB) and the State Rating Bureau, Massachusetts businesses will be saving approximately $130 million on workers’ compensation insurance starting July 1.
The settlement, which resolves an administrative rate trial at the Division of Insurance, will result in an average rollback of approximately 10.2 percent on workers’ compensation insurance rates.
“Massachusetts policyholders will save over a hundred million dollars as a result of this settlement,” said AG Campbell. “By lowering workers’ compensation insurance rates, we can help better protect workers and ensure that small businesses can offer higher wages, better benefits and lower prices.”
Workers’ compensation insurance rates are set at least every two years in administrative rate trials before the Commissioner of Insurance with the Division of Insurance. The Attorney General’s Office litigates these cases to obtain fair rates for policyholders. This year’s case started earlier than the statute required, because the AG’s Office had secured an order requiring that rates be reviewed sooner than the usual two-year cycle.
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Following data filed by the state’s insurance companies earlier this winter suggesting that rates should decrease but only by an average of 4 percent, the AG’s Office intervened and identified shortcomings in the industry’s projections and argued for a larger decrease, resulting in the average 10.2 percent rate rollback and $130 million in savings for Massachusetts insurance policyholders announced today.
Massachusetts businesses are required to purchase workers’ compensation insurance to provide coverage for workers injured on the job including medical costs and a portion of their lost wages. Rate savings help ensure that the coverage is affordable and can translate into higher pay and more jobs for workers in the state.
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The AG’s Office is continuing its success in standing up for insurance customers and achieving workers’ compensation rate reductions. Over the past five years, the AG’s Office has saved small businesses and other employers hundreds of millions of dollars by intervening in workers’ compensation insurance administrative rate cases, including in 2022 and 2018.
The AG’s Insurance and Financial Services Division represents the public interest and litigates administrative rate cases to ensure that rates are fair for Massachusetts policyholders. The AG’s Office has worked collaboratively with AIS Risk Consulting and the State Rating Bureau to achieve the rate reduction in the present workers’ compensation insurance rate case.
This matter was handled by staff of AG Campbell’s Insurance and Financial Services Division, including Dr. Burt Feinberg, Peter Leight, Annie Killelea, Madonna Cournoyer, Lilia DuBois, Mike Sugar, Gia Kim, Abigail Hartzel and Glenn Kaplan.
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MetroWest Medical Center