State employers will enjoy another source of savings in their workers' compensation premiums after CFO Alex Sink ordered a 50 percent reduction in the 2008 workers' compensation administration assessment rate. The assessment rate is being lowered from .50 percent of the state's total premiums to .25 percent. The cut will result in savings of up to $19 million and will be included in the National Council on Compensation Insurance's annual rate filing that is due to be submitted to regulators sometime in late August. The assessment rate has dropped dramatically since 2002 when it was set at 2.56 percent. Since the legislature enacted a comprehensive set of reforms in 2003, workers' comp rates have dropped by a cumulative total of roughly 40 percent.
"During the past five years, Florida's healthy workers' compensation system has led to the addition of 28 new carriers writing workers' compensation in our state," Sink said. "A strong economy and tougher compliance efforts have generated significant premium growth, making these reductions to the workers' compensation trust fund assessment rate possible."
The fund pays for the operations of the Division of Workers' Compensation, the Office of Judges of Compensation Claims, and medical services provided by the State Agency for Health Care Administration. Other monies support the Division of Workers' Compensation Fraud and programs in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and to enforce certain child-labor regulations.
