With Fall comes your first look at 2024 industrial insurance rates. L&I will announce proposed base rates for each of Washington’s 300 industrial insurance risk classifications at the end of September or the beginning of October. Notification of final rates is then sent out in December.
Base insurance rates vary by risk class and industry type. The amount of base rate you pay is determined by your company’s workers’ compensation experience modification factor (EMF). L&I is looking at the hours and claims reported for your company from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022, to estimate how much loss you are likely to have next year. From there, they will determine how much premium they need to collect to pay for those losses.
There are things you can do now to lower your EMF in future years and lower the amount of premium you’ll need to pay for your industrial insurance.
- Build a strong safety program. Safety is the most proactive thing an employer can do to improve worker’s compensation performance. Avoiding injuries lowers your overall premium and helps maximize your refunds if you participate in the retrospective rating program.
- When injuries happen, return your employees back to work as quickly as medically appropriate. Time away from work is detrimental to you, your employees and your bottom line. By bringing people quickly back to work, you can lower claim costs, lower your insurance premiums and increase your retro refunds.
For more information and training on how industrial insurance rates are determined, please sign up for one of our upcoming trainings at www.ernwest.com/training.
If you want to know more about how to lower your industrial insurance premium, talk to one of our experts: https://www.ernwest.com/contact-us/