California approves comp rate reduction for 2020

California’s Insurance Commissioner has approved a reduction to the average advisory pure premium rate benchmark for the ninth consecutive year, the California Department of Insurance announced Thursday.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara lowered the benchmark to $1.52 per $100 of payroll, effective Jan. 1, 2020, according to a statement. Average filed pure premium rates as of July 1, 2019, were $1.99 per $100 of payroll, which were 19.2% more than the corresponding average advisory per premium rate of $1.67 approved in January of this year.

The commissioner’s decision, however, differs from the California Workers Compensation Insurance Ratings Bureau’s proposed average pure premium rates filing of $1.67 per $100 of payroll, according to the statement. 

This difference in proposed pure premium rate filings was due to a June 30, 2019, loss experience that was not available at the time of the WCIRB’s filing, an incurred loss development in part due to ultimate medical losses and reflected lower claim severity trends, the WCIRB said Thursday in a separate statement.