National Academy Of Social Insurance (NASI)
The NASI takes on a monstrous task every year of attempting to make sense of Workers Comp data on a national basis.
NASI’s recent report and press release basically had a misleading headline that Workers Comp costs increased due to an economic recovery. That is not really included as an outstanding component of their underlying study.
The NASI report indicated the increase was due to increases of:
- 4.5% in medical costs
- 2.6% in cash benefits paid
The NASI drew data for 2011 from many sources – mainly
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
- NCCI – 28 states
- WCIRB – California
- Best’s Ratings
The economic growth theory was checked against NCCI’s State of The Line and WCIRB’s recent reports on % premium growth. Please note the PDF files will take a few moments to download.
NCCI’s State of The Line, which everyone involved in WC should read, mentions nothing about an economic recovery as the reason for an increase in employer costs. A very similar figure to NASI’s report can be found by adding the medical severity cost to the indemnity increase. Both of those figures totaled to 7.5%.
The WCIRB also did not mention an improving economy as the reason for the increase in the employer costs of Workers Comp for 2011 in California. The extrapolated figure for CA from the WCIRB’s numbers was approximately 5%.
The BLS figures were not examined as their history of multiple revisions would not help. A.M. Best was not researched for data.
After reviewing the NCCI and WCIRB data, the reason for the increase in employer costs had very little, if any, due to an economic rebound. Instead, the increase in medical costs in 2011 seemed to be the main reason for the increases.
The one very tough task the NASI undertook was converting Total Incurred (Paid + Reserve) to paid-only figures. This would have been a very difficult task.
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