Boca Raton, FL – NCCI recently announced that in collaboration with a number of other workers compensation rating bureaus it has released a new study, COVID-19’s Impact on Workers Compensation – A Multi-Bureau Report.
To better understand the pandemic’s impact on the workers compensation (WC) industry, a cross-bureau collaborative effort was made to analyze COVID-19 claims characteristics, including representation from the following WC bureaus: California, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and NCCI. The analysis does not include experience from self-insured employers or denial and expense-only claims.
Claim and loss activity during 2020 as of year-end 2020 varies across jurisdictions, indicative of how the pandemic impacted individual states differently and at varying times. The early evaluation of the emergence of COVID-19 claims includes many uncertainties.
Key findings in the study include:
- For the 45 states included in this analysis, COVID-19 claims represent 11.0% of total claims counts and 3.5% of incurred losses.
- Indemnity-only claims emerged as a significant share of reported COVID-19 claims.
- In aggregate, COVID-19 claims that remained open have relatively higher case reserves due to the uncertainty of COVID-19 infections, later than average accident dates, and timing of the various waves of the pandemic.
- COVID-19 indemnity claims closed more quickly than non-COVID-19 indemnity claims, partly driven by the large share of indemnity-only claims.
- Despite the higher closure rate, the ratio of paid to paid + case losses on COVID-19 claims is lower when compared with that for non-COVID-19 claims.
Read the full report: COVID-19’s Impact on Workers Compensation – A Multi-Bureau Report (PDF)
A webinar with several Independent Bureaus and NCCI will be hosted on Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 2:30 p.m. ET (11:30 a.m. PT).
During the discussion, you’ll learn about the multi-bureau collaboration on COVID-19 claims data that offers a more comprehensive view of COVID-19 claim characteristics and trends. The webinar is available at no cost and open to everyone.
Register: Webinar: COVID-19’s Impact on Workers Compensation—A Multi-Bureau Collaboration
Source: NCCI