CA Cumulative Trauma Claims – WCIRB Webinar Today
CA cumulative trauma claims first appeared at the NCCI 2026 Symposium last month. Andrea Coleman, WCIRB – California’s Workers Comp rating bureau, pointed out the need for the 2025 sharp increase and then followed up with a 2026 heavy increase to the advisory rates. See the article from earlier this week.
I waited until this week to post on the CA cumulative trauma claims due today’s webinar by the WCIRB. The webinar was definitely one to view, along with the one from May 28th. If you have any WC insurable interests in the Golden State, pay attention as this new line of claims can wreck your Experience Modification Factor (X-Mod), or if you are large enough to be self-insured, your insurance budget can become a disaster.
The Startling Numbers
The excellent (as usual) webinar from today explained most of the reasons for the sharp rate increases. My notes from the “Every State Has a Story” NCCI AIS session included a quote from the WCIRB’s CEO, Andrea Coleman, that the CA cumulative trauma claims had increased by 30%. That number was and is a shock to California’s Workers Comp system.
The video will show up on the WCIRB website as a video-on-demand in the next few days. I downloaded the handout. You can find the handout that goes along with the video here. I am unsure if the handout will be in the video-on-demand presentation. handoutinsidetheriseincumulativetraumaclaims1781108520496
Chart 7 from the slide-deck handout is below. These were the claims file post-employment termination. The chart says it all.
Will CA Cumulative Trauma Claims Expand To Other States?
Many Workers Comp trends that started in CA have often expanded to other states. Is this one of them? Cumulative trauma claims have been a hotly debated topic for decades. What happens if the claim is classified as mental-mental? Does that fit under cumulative trauma claims for any other state? The debate persists.
