State approves 3.9% workers' comp insurance increase
The Maine Bureau of Insurance has approved a 3.9% rate increase for workers' compensation insurance, the largest increase approved in recent years.
The Bangor Daily News reported the increase is the largest in at least six years, a result of rising health care costs, according to Paul Sighinolfi, executive director of the Maine Workers' Compensation Board.
The increases are set to take effect on April 1.
Sighinolfi said health care costs have made up an increasing percentage of workers' compensation payments since 2000, when payouts were split 50-50 between indemnity to the injured worker and health care payments. Those health care payments now make up about 58% of workers' comp payments.
Not all insurance providers are required to adopt the rate increases, but Michael Bourque of the Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Co., or MEMIC, said most do.
Executives from MEMIC, which controls about 60% of the workers' compensation insurance market in Maine, are expected to meet Thursday and decide whether to adopt the full 3.9% increase.
The approved increase follows state approval of a 1.8% decrease in November, which officials said would save businesses around $3.5 million.
Over the long-term, however, rates have seen a steady decrease, falling a cumulative 22.9% since 2008, Bourque told the paper.
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