North Bay Business Journal

While California’s insurance industry awaits the results of recently enacted reforms in the workers compensation world, employer premiums will likely still face upward pressure for most of 2013 as implementation takes shape, insurance experts said.

Workers’ compensation insurance rates are continuing to climb upward, as the cost of health care and increasing medical utilization drives up premiums for employers throughout the state, according to brokers in the North Bay.

NORTH BAY — The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, the body that oversees and makes recommendations for the workers comp sector, has officially recommended a 1.8 percent decrease in pure premium rates beginning in 2012.

NORTH BAY – October has been a time of change for the state workers’ compensation system, foreshadowing a shift in rates, losses and regulation.

Heffernan Insurance Brokers recently unveiled a new wellness offering to Bay Area clients. The program was piloted in the group’s Walnut Creek office and is now available to North Bay customers as a package or as an a la carte option.

Most of us are now aware the Workers’ Comp Insurance Rating Bureau recommended a 24 percent rate increase effective July 1. So what are they thinking? Don’t they know that California has been called the epicenter of the national recession and that our state has the highest jobless rate in a generation? What is this, a death blow?