NU Online News Service, May 17, 4:13 p.m. EDT–The New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board (NYCIRB) will propose a rate increase of 16.1 percent for workers' compensation insurance, the attorney for the nonprofit insurers group said.
NYCIRB, which does data collection and rate development for the state, withdrew a previous proposal for a 9.5 increase because new data came in, explained Marty Minkowitz, the group's counsel.
The 9.5 number was withdrawn "to avoid the confusion of having two rate requests outstanding," said Mr. Minkowitz, adding that if the state insurance department had granted an increase for that amount "there wouldn't have been a need for a 16.1 percent increase."
According to the State Insurance Department, NYCIRB last year originally sought a 29.3 percent increase, which was rejected in July 2004 as unsubstantiated.
NYCIRB then came back with the 9.5 percent number, which it withdrew this month after a public hearing earlier this year.
In 1996 Republican Gov. George Pataki signed the New York State Employment Safety and Security Act making revisions in the state's comp system. According to the New York State Insurance Department those changes have saved employers "millions of dollars because the average manual rates have dropped by almost 30 percent since the law's adoption."
Part of that statute made workers' comp fraud a felony and created the office of the Workers' Compensation Inspector General.
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