The workers-compensation insurance rate that Florida businesses pay could be going up, starting in January. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation held a hearing on Thursday to consider the proposed rate increase.The hike would raise the average policy premium by a little more than 6 percent.
After workers-compensation reform had driven rates lower in Florida for years, they started going up in the past three years.
Lori Lovgren, who’s with the rating agency that’s recommending the increase, says that’s because cost-saving measures have become ineffective.
“All the benefits that we could achieve from that reform stopped in about the 2006 time frame. No more additional savings were coming in after the 2006 time frame," she told the OIR.
Lovgren said the proposed rate hike would keep rates 56 percent lower than they were before the reforms. The Florida Legislature made an effort at further reforms this year to avoid raising workers comp rates again. But that bill did not pass.