West Virginia Workers Comp Environment

We are now closing in on West Virginia having an open market for Work Comp insurers to write policies as of 7/1/08. I have been asked often about what the market will look like as of 1/1/09. Brickstreet now has 100% of the market and will until 7/1/08. As I was quoted before in the Charleston Daily Mail, the insurance carriers will have to accept the Brickstreet model to enter the market as the data that NCCI has worked from to give Loss Cost Codes was data primarily provided by Brickstreet and data from "similar states."

The actuary from NCCI that set the rates for West Virgina commented in a meeting last month that it will take a number of years to have true data to use for rate setting purposes.

Overall, Brickstreet had a very huge and difficult task in taking on the claims directly from the Fund and taking on all new claims. However, the fund claims were sub-contracted out.

Back to the original question - I am unsure of how the market will look on 1/1/09. The closest state to West Virginia was Nevada in their Workers Comp situation. I think the main thing is that there be no outside interference to the market from any of the parties involved. The market will take care of itself as it has in many states for many years.

The West Virginia Insurance Commission website has a large amount of information. Commissioner Jane Cline has been very open with statistical information. Check out their website to find out a large amount of info.

West Virginia will need to monitor the PEO's (Professional Employment Organizations) that will come into the state to write business. We will explore PEO's later this week.

Next Up - The Most Common Error in Workers Comp Premiums