Rate Bureau Goes Beyond Protz Fix, Files for 14.74% Decrease

Thursday, November 15, 2018 | 0

The Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau, acting sooner than many had expected, has recommended a 14.74% loss cost reduction, just two weeks after the governor signed House Bill 1840, known as the "Protz fix" law.

Commissioner Jessica Altman

State Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman promised swift action on the filings. 

"Our department will be prioritizing our review of these filings to make certain our insurers and employers are using the correct information, and rates are set appropriately,” Altman said in a news release Wednesday.

The Rating Bureau made two filings late Tuesday. One, in response to the Protz fix, amounts to an overall average decrease of 5.24%. It would countermand a similar increase in rates filed early this year after the state Supreme Court struck down the use of the "latest edition" of the American Medical Association's impairment rating guides.

The court ruling returned the state to the fourth edition of the guides, which allows for higher impairment ratings for many injuries. The Protz fix law restores the use of the sixth edition and is expected to save Pennsylvania employers millions of dollars per year.

The Rating Bureau's second filing on Tuesday, dubbed "the interim loss cost filing," seeks to correct a loss cost increase that was based on erroneous 2016 data from a rate bureau member, the filing said. It would amount to an average loss cost reduction of about 10%.

Altogether, compared with the April 2018 approved filing, the filings would amount to a 14.74% decrease.

If approved by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, the filings would take effect Jan. 1, 2019.