Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has issued a final order approving a 6.4 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance rates, based on an amended filing by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). The approved increase applies to new and renewal business and will become effective April 1. On Jan. 26, McCarty issued an order denying the NCCI’s Nov. 14 rate filing in which it was seeking an 8.9 percent rate increase as a result of the impact on rates it projects following the Oct. 23 Florida Supreme Court opinion in the case of Emma Murray v. Mariner Health Inc.
The Court’s decision eliminates the statutory caps on attorney fees that were imposed as a result of the 2003 reforms under SB 50A and will enable claimant attorneys handling workers’ compensation claims to collect increased fees for their services.
The approved rate increase will add about $172 million in insurance costs for Florida employers. But, in combination with the 18.6 percent rate decrease that took effect Jan. 1, the net savings to Florida employers is still $438 million.
In its Nov. 14 filing, the NCCI had proposed spreading an 18.6 percent rate increase over two years – 8.9 percent for the first year, to become effective March 1 – for the voluntary market for all new and renewal workers’ comp insurance policies written in Florida. In disapproving the filing, McCarty cited disagreements with the data and methodology the NCCI used to calculate the projected effect of the Court’s ruling.
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