New Hampshire files comp rate reduction for 13th consecutive year

The New Hampshire Insurance Department said Thursday it has approved a rate proposal filed by the National Council on Compensation Insurance that will translate to an average 5.6% reduction in lost costs.

“The workers’ compensation market in New Hampshire remains robust, offering business owners a wide array of options when selecting coverage,” DJ Bettencourt, the state’s insurance commissioner, said in a statement. “As employers and employees work together to prioritize workplace safety, everyone across the Granite State benefits from these lower costs.”

The commissioner’s office said New Hampshire’s voluntary workers compensation market has seen loss cost decreases for 13 consecutive years, with a cumulative reduction exceeding 65% during this period.

All insurers who write workers comp in the state must adopt the new loss costs, the insurance commissioner’s office stated.

Christian Citarella, the chief property and casualty actuary for the state insurance department, said in a statement that consistently lower loss costs are a “strong indicator of safer work environments and faster recovery time for injured workers.”

Loss costs are the portion of an employer’s insurance premium that goes toward covering workers comp claims.