NCCI has now projected that the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Murray v. Mariner Health will result in an average rate increase of 8.9% for Florida employers. Actually, they project an overall increase of 18.6%, but the full effect of the decision won't be felt for a couple of years. Here's the story from the 11/14/2008 edition of the Miami Herald. A hearing is set for December 16.
According to this story from the Tampa Bay Business Journal, NCCI is in the process of proposing higher workers' compensation insurance rates for Florida employers in light of the Florida Supreme Court's ruling in Murray v. Mariner Health. Although the 18.6% rate reduction previously approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation will go into effect on January 1 as scheduled, NCCI is proposing that new rates go into effect on March 1, 2009.
I wrote here about the Division of Workers' Compensation's proposal to amend Fla. Admin. Code R. 69L-7.501 regarding the reimbursement of hospital outpatient services. NCCI has now issued a report in which it projects that the effect of the proposal would be "premium neutral." A hearing on the proposed rule is scheduled for November 20.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has announced yet another decrease in workers' compensation rates for Florida employers in 2009. The average rate will decrease by 18.6%, bringing the average cumulative decreases in rates to 60.5% since the 2003 amendments to Ch. 440 were enacted.
Commissioner McCarty warned, however, that this decrease does not take into account the effects of the Florida Supreme Court's 10/23/2008 ruling in Murray v. Mariner Health. He expects NCCI to make a new filing in support of the rate impact which it believes will result from Murray.
Medical costs for Florida workers' compensation claims are about to go up by about 20% if the Division of Workers' Compensation adopts a recommendation made by a consulting firm which it retained. That's what Joe Paduda says in this post on his "Managed Care Matters" blog.
Section 440.13(12) provides that most hospital outpatient services are to be reimbursed at 75% of "usual and customary charges." The problem is that the statute does not define "usual and customary charges." According to Mr. Paduda, in its 12/13/2007 report, Research & Planning Consultants, L.P., recommended that WC reimbursement for outpatient hospital services be tied to the rate that hospitals charge Medicare, not the rate at which they are actually paid by Medicare. The problem, says Mr. Paduda, is that hospitals mark up the amount they charge Medicare by about 715%. That is, they charge Medicare more than seven times what it costs to provide the service. This will result in a reimbursement rate of about 472% of what Medicare actually pays for outpatient services.
If Mr. Paduda's predictions are correct, I'd say that increases in workers' compensation premiums can't be far behind.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has ordered 6 workers' compensation insurance carriers to refund $4.2 million in excess profits to their employer policyholders. "Excess profits" result when the workers' compensation insurance carrier's "underwriting gain" for workers' compensation insurance exceeds its "anticipated underwriting profit" by a factor of 5%. See §627.215(7)(a), Fla. Stat.
You can read the story from the Insurance Journal here and the official press release from the Office of Insurance Regulation here.
I wrote here about the 10/8/2007 hearing before the Office of Insurance Regulation regarding NCCI's proposed rate reduction of 16.5% for workers' compensation insurance for 2008. Now, in this order dated 10/22/2007, Commissioner Kevin M. McCarty has rejected that proposed reduction and has ordered an 18.4% reduction instead.
You can read the Office of Insurance Regulation's press release here.
Writing workers' compensation insurance in Florida has become highly profitable over the last few years - so much so that Florida employers deserve a premium decrease of another 36.3%. That's the conclusion of this actuarial analysis prepared by the Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate. The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) has proposed an average premium decrease of 16.5% for Florida's employers commencing on 1/1/2008. That's not enough, says the report which concludes
A rate hearing is scheduled for 10/8/2007 before Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation. Largely as the result of the 2003 legislative reforms, over the last few years that office has approved premium reductions of 14.0% (10/1/2003), 5.1% (1/1/2005), 13.5% (1/1/2006), and 15.7% (1/1/2007).
David A. McCranie has been licensed to practice law in the State of Florida since 1982. He has been aMore...
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