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| | CWCI Reports Medical Payments Have Soared For Private Sector Self-Insured Employers in California By Lonce LaMon - September 4, 2009The number of workers’ comp claims for private-sector employers that self-insure in California rose for the first time since 1991, the California Workers’ Compensation Institute reported Wednesday in a summary of new state data. The costs have soared, primarily because of post-system reform increases in medical payments.
The CWCI summarized data released last week by the state Office of Self-Insurance Plans.
In 2008, California had 2.39 million private self-insured employees, which was 4.3 percent more than in 2007, but 3.3 percent fewer than the number of private self-insured employees in 2003 — the year before the workers’ comp system was reformed. Those employees turned in 91,715 claims in 2008, which is an increase of only four-tenths of a percent, but nevertheless, it is the first increase in the number of claims in 17 years.
Year-end paid losses on 2008 claims totaled $191.4 million, representing a 12.1 percent increase over the year before. The average payment per claim in 2008 — $2,087 —was the highest it has been since the system reforms. It was 12 percent higher than in 2007, the CWCI said, and 20.6 percent higher than the post-reform low of 2005.
Medical payments on those 2008 claims jumped to $1,283, which is a 16.4 percent increase from 2007 and a 29.2 percent increase from the 2005 post-reform low of $993, the institute reported.
Indemnity payments averaged $804 in 2008, which was 5.7 percent more than the year before and 10 percent more than the low of $731 in 2006.
Data for public-sector employers that self insure is available only through the first half of 2008. Those results show that the average amounts paid also are rising for public-sector employers that self insure.
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