NCCI Reports Workers Compensation Claims Continue to Decline

A report issued by a national workers' compensation rating organization, NCCI Holdings, Inc (NCCI) disclosed that workers' compensation claims frequency is declining.

"Preliminary results indicate a decline of 4.0% for 2008. This is on the heels of a 2.6% drop in claim frequency in 2007 and it extends a trend that started in the 1990s. While the overall decline is widespread .... high-cost Permanent Total claims have emerged recently as a noticeable exception to this decline."

The key finding of their analysis were:

• Over the last five years, there were significant declines in total lost-time claims frequency for all industries, geographic regions, and employer sizes
• The number and frequency of Permanent Total claims have increased significantly over the last four years, with all major causes of injury contributing to the rise
• The rise in Permanent Total claims appears to be driven primarily by workers age 50 or under
  
• While claim frequency generally decreases as risk size increases, single-state risks in some classes have higher claim frequency at the higher payroll sizes than at lower payroll sizes