Moore: Something Not Seen Since 1931

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 | 0

I decided to try blogging the NCCI Virginia 2019 Advisory Forum live. If you can make it to one of these forums, they are only two hours long and so full of data your head will spin — in a good way. 

James Moore

A PDF for this forum can be found here.

National statistics 

The combined ratio is the lowest since 1931. Insurance carriers overall had a 17% profit level due to a combined ratio of 83%. Yes, that is right — 83%. That is totally amazing.  Does this mean the workers’ compensation market is healthy? 

The net payroll increased due to a new tax law in 2018 that made decreased the offshore tax advantages, so the offshore ceding to a foreign carrier was brought back onshore.

Loss development is decreasing over time, possibly due to addressing the opioid epidemic. In my opinion, it was due to the fee schedules enacted lover the last few years. 

Virginia statistics 

For 2017 Virginia had a 1.5% decrease in indemnity claim severity. The medical indemnity claim severity decreased by 7.8%.  

The average loss cost level change is -10.7%. The contracting industry group was reduced by 12.6%.  

Virginia residual market 

Virginia's assigned risk plan has 6% of the total market share. NCCI administers the plan for 21 states. Some 16,516 policies were issued in the residual market. 

The average assigned risk plan policy in Virginia is $3,700. 

National and Virginia labor market statistics 

Virginia has slower growth than the national labor market. The average weekly wage has increased by 3.6% for 2018. 

Virginia lost 3.8% employment in information technology. The number is usually negative. The natural resources and mining payroll increased by almost 10%.  

The average unemployment rate in Virginia hit an all-time low of 3%.  

Virginia legislative activity

HB 2022 removed the statute of limitation for injured workers. 

Medical data 

Hospitals' paid amount for in-patient per stay was $40,000. The national average was $30,000. Ambulatory surgical centers were 50% higher than the national average in Virginia.   

I did not include much of the medical data, as the new Virginia fee schedule will change the numbers greatly over the next few years. 

Twenty-four percent of workers' comp prescriptions were for opioids. That figure is the same as the national figure. 

Rotator cuff tears were the most expensive claims in Virginia at $44,000 on average. 

The two forum presenters were David Benedict and NCCI actuary Jay Rosen.  

This blog post is provided by James Moore, AIC, MBA, ChFC, ARM, and is republished with permission from J&L Risk Management Consultants. Visit the full website at www.cutcompcosts.com.