Healthcare Industry Workers Comp Results – WCIRB Report and Webinar
The Healthcare Industry Workers Comp results for the pandemic were amazing, yet not that surprising. California’s WCIRB (Workers Comp Insurance Rating Bureau) released a study with an associated webinar that I missed yesterday due to an emergency assignment from a long-term customer.
The webinar is available on demand here. WCIRB asks that you register for the link to the on-demand webinar. You will not be spammed for providing your email address. The associated slides – a 44-page PDF file with plenty of great info nuggets can be found here.
Review the slides or better yet, sign up and watch the webinar – well worth your time (50 minutes).
WCIRB’s Key Findings – See Chart for #4
Key findings in the report include:
- The healthcare industry is one of the largest in California, with over 48,000 workers’ compensation policies, and has operations in five distinct healthcare segments that provide medical care. Those segments generate 6 percent of all California workers’ compensation insurance premiums.
- The advisory pure premium rates for the healthcare industry are about 20 percent below the statewide average.
- Hospitals experienced the largest reduction in payroll and the highest increase in indemnity claim frequency among all healthcare segments during the pandemic.
- See below the chart for more info
Startling Pandemic Effects on Healthcare Industry Workers Comp Claims
The study and associated webinar had one slide that jumped off the screen. See the slide below.

As one can see in the above chart, during the pandemic, the claim severity was much lower than average for California. The healthcare industry has the highest share – 41 percent – of indemnity COVID-19 claims among all industries, more than four times the statewide average.
Bottom Line
The healthcare industry workers comp statistics show that the industry is growing quickly in California. The pandemic section indicates the pandemic had a major impact on healthcare employers. A rate of 400% more COVID-19 injuries than other industries means that healthcare workers took large risks to provide proper medical care – kudos to them.