Comp insurers say pandemic’s impact on industry top concern

The impact of COVID-19 on the workers compensation industry is the top concern going into 2021 among comp insurance executives, according to a survey by the National Council on Compensation Insurance.

Boca Raton, Florida-based NCCI reported Wednesday that nearly two-thirds of the more than 100 insurance leaders surveyed cited pandemic-related issues as their top concern, indicating they are most worried about the uncertainty related to the duration of the pandemic, the number and size of COVID-19 comp claims and how long it will take workers and the economy to recover.

The other four top concerns, ranked in order of importance, are:

• Whether COVID-19 compensability presumptions that have been enacted in multiple states will become permanent or evolve to include other diseases.
• The overall impact of the pandemic on the health of the U.S. economy.
• Rate adequacy in workers comp — how best to evaluate risk in the current environment and how the pandemic overlays several years of declining loss costs.
• The impact of working from home on compensable injuries, ergonomics and overall worker safety.

More insurance and workers compensation news on the coronavirus crisis here.