Private carriers see 10th year of profitably from workers' comp line
Workers’ compensation premiums increased 1% this past year, according to the NCCI.
Workers’ compensation saw another strong performance in 2023 as private carriers realized a 10th consecutive year of profit from the line, according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI).
Private workers’ comp carriers had a combined ratio of 86 for the 2023 calendar year. It was also the seventh consecutive year that workers’ comp achieved a combined ratio below 90, according to the NCCI.
Additionally, workers’ comp premiums reached $43 billion, up 1% compared with 2022. The NCCI reported that the sector’s reserve redundancy grew to $18 billion.
Showing the strength of voluntary market carriers, the residual market’s share on the workers’ comp line continues to shrink, falling from 6.1% in 2022 to 5% in 2023. For comparisons, the residual market had a 12.5% market share in 2003, NCCI data indicate.
“The workers’ compensation system has unique features that have differentiated us from other commercial lines in terms of overall performance during the past several years,” NCCI President and CEO Bill Donnell said in a release. “However, there are key questions ahead related to issues such as frequency change and medical cost inflation.”
In 2023, lost-time claim frequency dropped 8%. This decline was two times larger than the long-term average decline.
Additionally, claims severity moderated this past year, with NCCI reporting a 2% increase in medical-claim severity and a 5% increase in indemnity-claim severity.
“Our research reveals that the moderate growth in inpatient cost per claim in workers comp is a function of a decrease in utilization of 22% since 2012,” Raji Chadarevian, NCCI’s executive director of actuarial research, said at the organization’s Annual Insights Symposium 2024. “This is fueled by a dramatic drop in admissions and a shift of surgeries to an outpatient setting. By contrast, inpatient prices have grown by more than 50%.”
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