Coal Mining Payroll, Injuries Affecting Overall Loss Costs, Filing Shows

After double-digit rate decreases for each of the past several years, and with surrounding states filing for cuts as large as 19% this year, a 1.6% loss cost decrease in West Virginia may seem downright strange. After all, workers' comp is in an era of falling claims frequency and record insurance company profits. But West Virginia employers, still grinning after the state-run workers' compensation system was commercialized in 2006, say they aren't worried that the music's about to stop. “It's a small decrease, but we're a small state. We're not concern...