State Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart approved new worker’s compensation insurance rates Wednesday that could save employers up to $20 million this year.
The new residual market rates agreed upon by the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau, Delaware’s Ratepayer Advocate and the state Department of Insurance, will decrease by an average of 9.7 percent in 2015. The voluntary market loss cost will decrease by an average of 11 and a half percent.
That’s a steep drop from DCRB’s October filing that requested drops between about 1.5 and 3.5 percent.
It’s also a rebound from recent times that experienced rate hikes around 40 percent per year.
Then Lt. Gov. Matt Denn chaired a task force that helped pass legislation in 2014 cutting medical costs by 33 percent over the next three years. Those rest on changes that affect how much Delaware doctors can charge for procedures and services — including hospitals.
Insurance Commissioner Stewart said in a statement that the rates were achieved as “the result of all the stakeholders working together to bring down Delaware’s high healthcare costs.”
The effective date for the new rates will be retroactive to December 1.
