4.5% Rate Drop Doesn't Factor in Two Major Comp Reforms

The state Department of Financial Services has approved the 4.5% rate decrease recommended by the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board, but employers are hoping for far greater savings going forward. Workers’ compensation reforms tucked inside the state’s annual budget bill that passed in April account for only about one-third of the rate decrease, the Rating Bureau says. The rest is the result of insurers’ favorable experience in 2014 and 2015. The decrease does not reflect two major reforms: a drug formulary and new permanency impairment guidelines that have n...